Nature is a magnificent gift to the human race. To protect and depict the originality in our living midst, we design our dream home or plan to construct an office where we would like to see a welcoming, perfectly integrated landscape. This includes a relaxing scene that can portray ourselves sipping a cocktail on a porch swing that is completely surrounded by a peaceful floor of scenery. Whether it is a cottage or a flat, modern landscape styles are everyone’s taste these days. A perfectly designed interior and unique exterior will display your unique style that is appealing and inviting. This is why it is extremely important for your house to be maintained constantly to keep it away from the invading pest.
To prevent the little wonders of nature from destroying your lawn, we got to deal with them using natural tactics that will leave your lawn growing a-plenty. This way, you can feel at ease that you are not using any harmful chemical. There are few insects that feed on your plants and cause diseases in them. These organisms are termed as pests. Lawn damaging pests include insects, bugs, mites, and stinkbugs. It is important for every homeowner to know how to eliminate stinkbugs in an environmentally friendly way because these organisms can cause severe damage to your beautiful lawn.
The first and foremost step is to recognize the stink bug’s presence in your lawn. It can be identified by its characteristics. It usually has a wide and hard shell that acts as a form of a shield. Usually, most of these insects are brown in color with patches of other colors. They also come in bright-green color shades. The stink bug has earned its name because it releases a weird pungent odor. It smells like crushing the coriander leaves. The bug wards off natural predators like lizards or birds with this smell. Although this pest is harmless to humans, a stink bug feeds upon the flowers and the leaves while particularly tending to devour the developing seeds, if the infestation is not taken care of. If they are allowed to breed, they can cause great damage to the lawn plants.
Here are some of the effective ways to deal with the landscape insect pests:
- Clean the Growing Area Regularly: Maintaining the lawn area and keeping it free from the debris of old leaves can keep the area fresh. If the growing area is kept clean, the insects have nothing to eat or hide.
- Watchfully Eliminate the Bugs: Instantly do not end up squishing every other stink bug that you see or initiate to spray harsh insecticides. Try to analyze and understand the methods to remove them from the growth area. If these bugs die from spraying and the remains are not cleared, they will release the unpleasant odor which will make your whole garden stink. Also, the dead remains of these insects will attract other pests like ants, which should be avoided.
- Look Out for Stink Bug Eggs: The bugs themselves are harmful; their eggs are even worse. However, if the infestation of stink bugs is found mostly when you start to see white patches on the plant leaves. This is when you may have to get rid of these eggs because that’s exactly how they start hatching. The safest alternative is to cut or dispose of any leaf with suspicious patches of the eggs.
- Use Water Treatment: If the infected plant can be isolated, try to do so. Use a hosepipe and clean the plant. This way, you can easily eliminate the bugs. However, if this is not possible, a couple of natural remedies can be tried to safeguard the plants and protect the ecosystem.
Some of the few tips that can prevent the infestation of stink bugs are by covering the lawn with mesh screening, removing the weeds from the garden frequently, and killing the bugs outside in order to drive other insects away and alternatively planting wildflowers in order to attract wasps.
Treating the pest naturally:
- Spraying crushed garlic mixed with water in a bottle: Stink bugs hate garlic smell. Spraying the garlic mixture with water in the common areas of ingress can be extremely useful in reducing the growth.
- Vacuum cleaning: Use a vacuum cleaner that can suck back the stink bugs. A bagged vacuum should preferably be used. When sucked up by these machines, the stink bugs usually feel threatened and release their odor. When you are finished vacuuming, toss the bag away.
- Using soapy water to treat stink bugs: Take about 3/4th cup of mild dish detergent and 32 Oz of warm water to add to the spray bottle. Mix well and spray in the affected areas. Soap is highly effective in dehydrating the bugs. The soapy water mixture can immobilize the bugs and kill the bugs instantly.
- Neem oil: Technically neem oil is extracted from the seeds of the neem tree which is an insecticide by nature. It is very effective against stinks bugs and has no chemical or additive characteristic. It is found to be one of the traditional over-the-counter insecticides for many years. Neem oil simply works by distracting the feeding instincts of insects, thus starving them and obstructing from laying eggs. The oil, when used by combining with warm water, it becomes easy to spray at the affected area. This process will not kill the bugs instantly. However, there can be a predominant decrease in their number.
- Mint oil or mint leaf spray: A mixture of mint oil about 10 drops or crushed fresh mint leaves of 2 tsp. mixed with 2 cups of water and sprayed using a spray bottle acts as a repellent instead.
- Hot pepper solution: Soak hot peppers (jalapenos) in water. Pour the sticky solution into a spray bottle. When sprayed on the stink bugs, this decoction can kill them immediately. Capsaicin is a chemical that is present in hot peppers, which gives the insects a hard time to survive.
Prevention is always better than cure. This phrase goes well with bug infestation as well. If the infestation can be prevented, you will be able to avoid tons of damage and hard work. Unlike other pests that are hard-to-spot such as thrips and mites, stink bugs are fortunately big enough and can be easily spotted. Mostly, it is easy to get rid of them quickly and safely. Just be alert and keep a watch on your lawn and you will definitely enjoy a clean home environment!
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