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Outdoor Prevention
Remove or destroy outdoor pest hiding places:
- Remove piles of wood from under or around your home to avoid attracting termites and carpenter ants.
- Destroy diseased plants, tree prunings, and fallen fruit that may harbor pests.
- Rake fallen eaves. Keep vegetation, shrubs, and wood mulch at least 18 inches away from your house.
Remove breeding sites
- Clean up pet droppings from your yard; they attract flies that can spread bacteria.
- Do not accumulate litter or garbage; it draws mice, rats, and other rodents.
- Drain off or sweep away standing puddles of water; water is a breeding place for mosquitos and other pests.
- Make sure drain pipes and other water sources drain away from your house.
Take proper care of all outdoor plants:
- These include flowers, fruit and shade trees, vegetable and other plants, and your lawn. Good plant health care reduces pest control needs. Healthy plants resist pests better than do weak plants.
- Plant at the best time of year to promote healthy growth and
- use mulch to reduce weeds and maintain even soil temperature and moisture.
- Water adequately.
- Native flowers, shrubs, and trees often are good choices because they adapt well to local conditions and require minimal care
Gardening
- Select healthy seeds and seedlings that are known to resist diseases and are suited to the climate where you live. Strong seeds are likely to produce mature plants with little need for pesticides.
- If your garden is large, alternate rows of different kinds of plants. Pests that prefer one type of vegetable (carrots, for example) may not spread to every one of your carrot plants if other vegetables (not on the pests. diet) are planted in the neighboring rows.
- Dont plant the same crop in the same spot year after year.
- That way your plants are not as vulnerable to pests that survive the winter.
- Make sure your garden plot has good drainage. Raised beds will improve drainage, especially of clay soils. If a heavy clay soil becomes compacted, it does not allow air and water toget to the roots easily, and plants struggle to grow.
Preventing Pests
- Clean up litter or garbage, compacted soil and create air spaces so that water and nutrient scan reach the roots, buy or rent a tiller that breaks up the dirt and turns it over.
- Before planting, add sand and organic matter to enrich the soil mixture in your garden plot. Also, have the soil tested periodically to see whether you need to add more organic matter or adjust the pH (acidity/alkalinity) balance by adding lime or sulfur. Your County Cooperative Extension Service, listed in the telephone book, or local nursery should be able to tell you how to do this.
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