Pest Management
Eco-Friendly Outdoor Pest Control
Pest Management that Respects the Environment
Native Green uses the least harmful environmentally friendly pest control possible. The techniques we employ are cultural, biological, mechanical and chemical methods, if necessary, to achieve outdoor pest control, eliminate problems, and maintain the holistic health of your landscape and the environment.
IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
Native Green follows an Integrated Pest Management approach to controlling pests in landscapes. IPM is a way of addressing pests that cause damage to plants and landscapes in the least invasive and harmful way possible.
Preventative Pest Control
IPM starts with prevention. The healthier the landscape, the less likely it is to have any pest problems. Pests can be insects, diseases, animals, or weeds. When plants have everything they need – the right nutrition, the correct growing medium, the exact amount of water, and the appropriate cultural conditions, then they will flourish.
Native Green maintains balance in gardens by installing landscapes based on sound horticultural principles and knowledgeable maintenance. We take the following steps to ensure success in the landscape and make conditions less favorable for pests:
Cultural Control of Pests Using Best Gardening Practices
- Regularly enriching the soil with compost and soil amendments to nourish plants
- Planting the right plant in the right place – they will thrive with the right conditions
- Installing efficient irrigation systems to ensure regular and appropriate watering schedules
- Regularly applying bark mulch to keep plant roots cool and conserve soil moisture
- Regularly removing weeds to make sure that plants don’t have to compete with weeds for nutrients or root space
- Using plant varieties and cultivars that are disease and pest resistant to minimize potential problems
- Regularly maintaining landscapes to catch small problems before they become big. For example, pruning off any diseased or pest affected twigs or leaves to prevent the rest of the plant or other plants from being infested.
Biological Control
Control of unwanted pests can be achieved by introducing natural predators to the landscape. For example, ladybugs will eat aphids, which are a common garden pest. Another example is beneficial nematodes, which are predators of all kinds of garden pests, including cutworms, grubs, and thrips.
Mechanical Control
Removing bugs from plants is a type of mechanical or physical control. For example, regularly removing aphids from stems or leaves using a jet of water is quite effective if done regularly. Also, picking snails and slugs off plants is one way of reducing their population in the landscape. Another example of mechanical/physical control is mulching around plants, which will cut down on weeds.
Chemical Control
We might use Neem oil, a plant extract that is found to be effective in eliminating unwanted insect populations and has a low toxicity rating. Horticultural oils are also useful for controlling insect pests. Oils are sprayed directly onto the pests, smothering them. These oils also have a low toxicity to plants and animals.
Native Green has an eco-friendly approach to pest management. Our first approach is always to make cultural changes to see if we can readjust and bring balance back into the landscape.
Serving Bellevue and the Seattle Eastside. Contact Native Green to ask about our eco-friendly outdoor pest control services.