Diagnose it

What's eating your plants?

Find the pest, get the organic control that actually works on it. Every remedy here is a fungus, bacterium or plant extract — nothing that poisons your soil or your food.

Sap-Sucking Pests

Pierce leaves and stems to drink plant sap. Leaves yellow, curl and drop; growth stalls; the sticky honeydew they leave behind grows sooty black mould and attracts ants.

6 organic remedies

Cottony Cushion Scale

A scale insect carrying a ridged white egg sac. Heavy infestations coat stems in white and cause dieback of whole branches.

2 organic remedies

Mealy Bugs

White cottony clusters tucked into leaf joints and under leaves. They drain sap, stunt new growth, and farm ant colonies that protect them from predators.

2 organic remedies

Scale Insects

Immobile brown or waxy bumps clamped along stems and leaf veins. They look like part of the plant, which is why they are usually caught late.

2 organic remedies

Spider Mites

Almost invisible mites that thrive in hot, dry air. Look for fine webbing and a stippled, dusty-looking leaf that eventually turns bronze and drops.

2 organic remedies

Thrips

Slivers barely a millimetre long that rasp the leaf surface, leaving silvery streaks and black specks of frass. Flowers open deformed or fail to open.

2 organic remedies

White Flies

Tiny white moths that lift off in a cloud when the plant is disturbed. Their larvae feed underneath the leaves and coat them in honeydew.

2 organic remedies

Aphids

Soft green or black specks massed on new shoots and flower buds. They multiply fast, distort young growth and spread plant viruses between plants.

1 organic remedy

Green & Brown Hoppers

Wedge-shaped hoppers that scatter sideways when approached. Feeding causes leaf tips to yellow and burn back — "hopper burn".

1 organic remedy

Green Stink Bug

Shield-shaped green bugs that feed on developing fruit, leaving hard corky patches and a distinctive smell when disturbed.

1 organic remedy

Spittle Bug

Betrayed by a blob of white froth on the stem, which hides the nymph feeding inside. Damage is usually cosmetic unless numbers are high.

1 organic remedy

Squash Bugs

Attack the cucurbit family — pumpkin, gourd, cucumber. Vines wilt from the tip back as feeding blocks water movement in the stem.

1 organic remedy

Leaf-Eating Pests

Caterpillars

Moth and butterfly larvae that eat leaves, buds and fruit. Look for ragged holes and dark pellets of frass on the leaves below.

4 organic remedies

Beetles

Adults skeletonise leaves and chew flowers. Many species drop and play dead the moment you reach for them.

3 organic remedies

Leaf-Eating Pests

Chew holes through leaves and can strip a young plant overnight. Damage is visible and fast, but these are also the easiest pests to control biologically.

2 organic remedies

Stem, Shoot & Fruit Borers

Bore into the stem, shoot tip or fruit and feed from inside, where sprays cannot reach. Shoots wilt suddenly; fruit shows a small entry hole and is hollow within.

2 organic remedies

Borers

Tunnel through woody stems and trunks. Sawdust-like frass at an entry hole is the giveaway; branches above it die back.

1 organic remedy

Grasshoppers

Large chewing damage on leaf margins, worst in hot dry spells. A few are tolerable; a swarm is not.

1 organic remedy

Leaf Miner

Larvae tunnel between the upper and lower leaf surfaces, leaving pale winding trails. The leaf stays attached but stops photosynthesising.

1 organic remedy

Soil & Root Pests

White Grubs

Fat C-shaped beetle larvae living in the soil, eating roots. The plant wilts in full sun despite watering, and lifts out of the pot far too easily.

3 organic remedies

Nematodes

Microscopic soil roundworms that form knots and galls on roots. Plants stay stunted and yellow no matter how much you feed them.

1 organic remedy

Root Weevils

Adults notch the leaf edges; the larvae do the real damage, eating roots and girdling the stem below soil level.

1 organic remedy

Soil Worms

Pest larvae in the root zone that cut through roots and stem bases, felling seedlings at ground level.

1 organic remedy

Termites

Eat roots, stem bases and any woody material, building earthen tunnels up the stem. Common in pots kept on soil or near old timber.

1 organic remedy

Fungal & Disease

Fungal Issues

Powdery mildew, leaf spots, bacterial blight, root and stem rot, and sudden drying of leaves. Nearly always worsened by evening watering and crowded, unventilated foliage.

2 organic remedies

Other

Other Pests

Broad-spectrum controls for pest problems that do not fit neatly elsewhere.

2 organic remedies

Not sure what you're looking at?

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