Flying Annoying Pests

Insects in the Garden

We've all been there; it's a gorgeous sunny day, and you finish all your housework quickly so you can get outside for some garden enjoyment.

Within minutes, the flies find you - and won't leave you alone.  It just takes all the fun out of it to be so pestered with flies.  Spraying deadly chemicals around just isn't the answer.

Interestingly, if you can get on it and kill off the annoying flies before they breed, you have a good chance of getting through the rest of the summer (almost) pest free. 

Here's a few ways you can get rid of those annoying pesky insects early in the season;

Encourage lots of songbirds to nest in your garden; they feed their young primarily with insects for a quick burst of protein, even those that generally eat seeds as adults. 

A few thoughtfully placed nesting boxes will help, as well as belling your cat so the birds have a chance to get away before they pounce.

Shrubs and trees close by will give the songsters a place to build their nests, if you prefer not to use nest boxes.

Make a pest catching sticky trap; the ones you buy in the hardware store are not safe for butterflies, which they also attract, so make your own and hang it inside a bird cage or chicken wire tube to prevent them from getting stuck on it.

I felt like a butterfly murderer when I saw this. 

Yellow attracts the most pests, including face flies, horn flies and blow flies.  I painted this paper cup and covered it with double sided sticky tape and hung it well out of reach of butterflies inside a rustic bird cage. 

If wasps and hornets are a major issue for you in the summer, here's my quick and dirty solution for them; a tall necked bottle with a few inches of beer, wine or fruit juice in the bottom, and a couple of teaspoons of raspberry jam. 

They fly in, gorge themselves, but can't fly directly upwards to escape.

I refer to this as Sweet Death.