Every season has its own pests that attack flowers, vegetables or fruit. Anyone familiar with these pests can react accordingly.
Anyone who has a garden does not always enjoy it. A garden can sometimes give you gray hair. For example, when diseases and pests attack fruit, vegetables, trees, bushes and flowers. Unfortunately, hobby gardeners do not know all pests and diseases, so they experiment and try them out. True to the motto "Either it works or it doesn't". But you shouldn't take that risk. Every season, even every month, has its pests and diseases that occur during that period. In September, for example, there are leaf miners, pear grates, asparagus beetles and gooseberry wasps.
In the following we would like to explain in more detail how these pests and diseases become noticeable and how you can combat them.
Diseases and pests in September
❍ leaf miner
Chestnuts have beautiful white to pink flowers and wonderfully large leaves. When these change color in autumn, it is a true natural spectacle. However, if they change color too early or if they look eaten, the leaf miner is often to blame. She lays her eggs on the leaves. When the larvae hatch, they feed on the leaves, which then become susceptible to disease and fall off.
Since the leaf miner likes to overwinter in the fallen leaves of the chestnut, you should collect the leaves regularly and dispose of them (not in the compost!). This will reduce the likelihood of an infestation occurring again next year. This is the only way to get the miner moth under control, because there are no approved pesticides against this pest.
❍ Pear grating
Pear rust appears on pear trees from April and is manifested by orange spots on the leaves. From July the spots change. Black warts then appear on the underside of the leaf. In itself, this is not a serious disease, because pear rust does not affect the fruit. The pears are therefore suitable for consumption.
IfIf you can still see pear rust on the leaves of your pear tree, then that's not a problem. You can compost these leaves or leave them lying around, because a new infection does not take place until spring.
❍ Asparagus Chicken
If you have asparagus in the garden, you should now take a close look at the shoots. If there are green larvae with a dark head, then these are the larvae of the asparagus beetle (Crioceris asparagi). Collect these, because they must not get into the ground. They hibernate there and eat away your young plants in the spring.
Alternatively, you can also water the soil with tomato leaf stock in autumn and spring. Simply pour some water over a few tomato leaves and let it sit for a few days.
❍ Gooseberry Wasp
Finally, you should check gooseberry and currant bushes for gooseberry wasp larvae. They are green with black warts. Collect these to prevent wasps from forming in the spring. It also helps if you cover the crown of your gooseberry or currant bushes with an insect protection fleece from the flowering period until mid-August.
Alternatively, you can also fight the larvae of the gooseberry wasp with an environmentally compatible agent such as Spruzit Schädlingsfrei from Neudorff (available here, for example).