What do you hate?

[Alison]

People wandering onto the plot and causing damage - this year they've not taken anything noticeable in the way of produce but have troden on things and closed / opened the polytunnel doors when I've wanted them the opposite way round. Can put up barriers to stop the other pests listed or do something about them but not much I can do about trespass.

[Two_Sheds]

I voted OTHER for the lily beetle. I love lilies, but it's a losing battle and I'm giving up. As fast as I find and squash the nasty things, more arrive. More and more every year.


I get other pests (all of them bar foxes & rabbits) but take precautions: sadly, half my crops now have to be grown under netting, it doesn't look nice and is a nuisance for weeding and slugging).

Earwigs seem to be on the increase too, I keep finding dozens of them in the house, they come in on cut flowers and veggies, 100s of them, everywhere. I trap and kill them but it makes no difference to their numbers.

Aphids are worst indoors where they multiply really fast - it's a constant squishing battle
Leek moth - terrible, all leeks and onions now under mesh
Pea moth - terrible, all peas now under mesh
Carrot root fly - even gets under the mesh
Cabbage root fly - makes radish growing impossible in the spring & summer
Cabbages - grown under mesh but this doesn't stop the slugs
Kale - under mesh, but gets infested with whitefly
Broad beans - now becoming infested with bruchid beetles, haven't had it before this year. Blackfly is a big problem after May
Strawberries suffer from blackbirds, but if I net then the slugs get them


The only crops I have no big problems with are French/runner beans (although slugs are a big problem for seedlings and bush types) and squashes (ditto)


It's enough to make you give up isn't it?

[zazen999]

It's a constant struggle against pests - with new ones coming each year it would seem and now the old bloke at the end [who used to have all the plots] stealing people's harvests. Including a new plotholder - a young family's sweetcorn and tomatoes that their kids grew. That's the worst pest of all I think as it's done because he isn't right in the head and doesn't actually eat any of it.

At least the non-human ones are actually just looking for food to survive on and can be dealt with in one way or other.

[Fruit&2veg]

People wandering onto the plot and causing damage - this year they've not taken anything noticeable in the way of produce but have troden on things and closed / opened the polytunnel doors when I've wanted them the opposite way round. Can put up barriers to stop the other pests listed or do something about them but not much I can do about trespass.

I can fully sympathise with you there, Alison, as we are constantly troubled by mindless morons trampling across plots and petty vandalism- Pulling up stuff and hurling it around for the "fun of it".

Can also emphasise with Zazen too,although this problem is thankfully less prevelant on our site although it does happen occasionally-I think thats because if its not pre-cooked and covered in grease for them, many of the local Oiks wouldnt know what to do with fresh produce!

[hamamelis]

In the allotment -slugs, slugs and more slugs!
In the garden- a grey squirrel, which decided to dig out everything- and I mean everything- that was planted in pots, and bury hazelnuts instead.

[Gearoid]

Slugs. The veg was fine, but my poor poor Dahlias!

I had lots of earwigs in my lettuce, but they didn't seem to be doing any damage. Just had to careful when picking lettuce for dinner.

And I had lots of lily beetles. I picked 14 of the blighters one day. I just kept an eye on them and picked off any I saw and then checked the underside of the lily leaves and rubbed off any eggs I found. I must've gotten them all as I didn't see any past July and the lilies were perfect this year.

[vegnut]

Whitefly everywhere, even on the weeds, and trying to eat kale with all that silvery white on the undersides is just offputting many of the other pests can be controlled easier, but the Whitefly just keeps coming !!! It just doesn't die easily..

[Garden_Chris]

Slugs, most certainly. Just when my first ever runner beans poked their innocent heads through the soil for the first ever time they pounced (metaphorically) in the night. Thankfully I inadvertently learnt a crucial lesson in gardening: always have a backup - in this case, more seedlings growing in a tray out of reach of those slugs and snails.

[Potstubsdustbins]

For me it has to be caterpillers, slugs and snails I can deal with but caterpillers have been a complete pain this year.

I am still picking off small white caterpillers from my spring cabbage, today I removed over thirty.

Colin

[Shadylane]

I can cope with slugs, they're disgusting slimy things, but if you look at them close when they're moving, they're kind of beautiful in a way. They're not a major problem on the plot though I have chucked a few over the fence. For me it's whitefly. They're horendous this year and nothing kills them. You almost inhale them cos they're everywhere. The only other major problems this year have been lack of rain and my own general crappiness. I will be better next year though

[VirginVegGrower]

Cabbage White Butterfly and their offspring - voracious veggie vampires! Hate them!

[Corris]

A MOLE!

The only reason we aren't all united in hatred for the little furry critters is that other people can't have them. There is a cartoon with elmer fudd where he sits with a gun to catch a gopher or mole or something in his garden - that was me! We bought smoke bombs and repellant and traps and a vibrating pole...... we looked first thing in the morning for new hills and cheered when their weren't any and ranted and stamped when he'd produced four overnight.

Between the mole creating hills, my jack russell trying to dig him out and my teenage son excavating runs and setting traps and letting off smoke down there my lawn looked like Vimy Ridge.

I abhorr moles. And they eat worms.

I became just a little bit obsessional

[shona_b]

Baby snails as they totally ignore the pellets but the biggest pest of all has to be the mindless vandal who broke in and damaged 12 sheds and 3 of the largest pumpkins on site.

[Piggle]

evil weevils ... chomping notches in things.

Worringly I keep finding them in the house... where are they comng from.

[mothhawk]

Cutworms - I carefully grew my brassicas under micromesh cloches (homemade) to keep the cabbage butterfly/moth caterpillars off, only to have cutworms emerge from the soil and chomp through the stems of young plants, and munch the leaves of older ones. And so hard to spot as they usually disappear back underground in the daylight.