When you've filled every available space in the greenhouse with pots of developing seedlings, grow bags of burgeoning plants and much more, don't sit back and let all your hard work become pest fodder.
It's galling enough to discover an epidemic of something munching on your plants, but knowing that you could have prevented it is even worse.
As the weather warms pests start to emerge from their winter shelters and begin to procreate. In the greenhouse it happens even faster as we actually provide the ideal conditions and a perfect food source for many pests.
The secret of control is to act as soon as you see the pest. Certain problems can linger undetected until they are a major problem e.g. whitefly. Lightly moving the plants to disturb any bugs is a good way of keeping an eye on things.
Early detection
Whatever your type of control preference you can use yellow sticky traps. Far from being
simply a mechanism for trapping flying insects, these sticky cards are the look out scouts. Hang these at the growing point of your plants, spaced out around the greenhouse, and they'll capture flying pests to give you an indication of problems that might be present.
Examine them regularly to determine exactly what is moving into your glasshouse and take action. Likely culprits will be aphids and whitefly. Early detection is essential. Remove the sticky traps if you are introducing a flying biological control as they may become caught on the sticky trap.
Once you've identified the problem you need to think and act fast. Think because now is the time to decide what method of control you intend to use. Chemical, or organic. If you use the former then you can't resort to biological control later in the season, it won't work.
Often biological control is attempted as a last resort, but it will not work if you have already sprayed your plants with chemicals because the pests you are trying to obliterate are of the same make up as the predators and parasites you are trying to introduce. Pesticide residues designed to kill the pests will also kill your new friendly bugs, and they can persist in the greenhouse for up to ten weeks depending on the active ingredient. So, it is essential if you are considering using green options to make the commitment, either way. You can't swap between the two.
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