CONTROLLING INSECT PESTS

To many people anything In the garden that crawls
or flies and is smaller than a chipmunk or a sparrow
can be classified as an insect. In fact, a lot of the
creatures that may bug your vegetable plants are not
insects at all — mites, slugs, snails, nematodes,
sowbugs, and symphylans among them. Another
popular misconception is that insects and similar
creatures are harmful or unnecessary and have no
place in the garden. Again, it isn't true. While some
insects are destructive, many are perfectly harmless. A
lot of them are actually important to the healthy
development of your garden crop, some because they
perform a specific service by keeping down other
pests that do harm your crop, and some because
they pollinate the plants. When you set out to control
harmful pests, it's important to realize that
indiscriminate controls may destroy the good as
well as the bad; the useful creatures as well as the
harmful ones.
Controlling the insect pests that attack your
vegetable garden can be a challenge; the method you
choose for controlling them can also be
controversial. Many gardeners rely on chemical
insecticides to do away with the enemy that's
competing for the crop. Some people, however,
object to the use of chemicals because they believe
that the chemicals may remain on the plant and harm
the person who eats it or that they may harm the
environment. These gardeners prefer to rely on
organic, or nonchemical, means of control. There
may also be times when it's better not to use a
chemical control even if you have no personal
objection to it — if you catch a caterpillar attack in the
early stages, for example, it can be easier to pick off
the offenders by hand than to mix up a whole batch of
insecticide. This chapter discusses the most
effective means of control — both chemical and
organic — for the pest problems you're most likely
to encounter.