There are lots of wonderful things about fall – changing leaves, cooler weather – and a break from many of summer’s pest problems. Nevertheless, if you’ve got a fall kitchen garden, you’re probably aware that you’ve still got some hungry bugs itching to get at your autumn veggies. While there are some pests you’ll want to get rid of for sure – like cutworms, snails, cabbageworms and cabbage loopers – there are others you may want to keep, like the swallowtail butterfly caterpillar.

The cutworm’s dark color helps it blend in with the soil.

Photo Credit: Megan Bame

Herbs with small flowers, like lavender, can attract predatory wasps to your kitchen garden.

Photo Credit: Mary Moore

Some caterpillars, like this swallowtail caterpillar, can be a welcome garden visitor. They eat a lot of parsley, but they become beautiful butterflies!

Photo Credit: Mary Moore

When it comes to controlling the “bad guys,” I like to use organic control practices. Not only are they pretty simple, I find they make it easy to purge the pests and pamper the keepers. Here’s a list of some common pests your may find buggin’ your garden, as well as some organic ways to control them:

Cutworms

If your plants look like they’ve been chopped down at the base by a miniature lumberjack, you may be dealing with cutworms. Cutworms sleep in the soil, then come out at night and chew their way through the base of a plant.

One approach to cutworm control is to dig carefully around the base of the plant that’s been attacked and remove the sleeping cutworms. You can also slow down cutworms by creating a physical barrier around young plants. Simply cut a toilet paper roll or paper towel roll into 3-inch cylinders and press each tube around the base of each new plant, leaving about an inch of the roll above the soil. You can also sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the plant to create a sharp gauntlet for the cutworms to climb over. (Be sure to wear a mask while applying, so you don’t inhale the stuff into your lungs.) While these controls take a little elbow grease, they work.

Slugs and Snails

Slugs and snails hide under your mulch and attack your leafy greens, strawberries, tomatoes, citrus plants and many types of annuals and perennials. They chew large holes in foliage and leave behind a slimy trail of mucus – the pests’ identifying trademark.

There are a couple of different methods to controlling these slimy pests. On one hand, you can create a barrier around your plants by placing copper flashing or screens in the soil. Copper is thought to produce an electrical current when it interacts with the snail or slug’s mucus – repelling the pests, but not killing them.

Another common approach is to use bait or a trap, particularly a beer trap. Simply place a shallow bowl in the ground, and pour in just enough beer for the snails to drown in. They’re attracted to the yeast in the beer, so you can use a cheap brand or make a homemade mixture of water, sugar and yeast to attract the snails. Finally, if you’re in the garden in the evening when these guys are coming out, handpick and dispose of the slugs yourself.

Cabbageworms and Cabbage Loopers

Do your cabbage leaves have large holes or missing sections? Are there piles of green caterpillar manure on the leaves or the soil? You may be dealing with the cabbageworm or the cabbage looper. Both continue to reproduce in the fall, and these pests can eat large amounts of cabbage, broccoli and other similar crops.

Keep an eye out for the moths that bring these hungry buggers into the garden: The adult cabbageworm is a white moth that lays yellow, bullet-shaped eggs that hatch into green caterpillars. The adult cabbage looper is a dark gray moth that lays round, yellow eggs that hatch into light green caterpillars. (The cabbage looper caterpillar moves a little like a walking horseshoe. Its legs are in the front and the back only, so the caterpillar tends to hunch its back up in a reverse “U” shape when it walks. You might also know these pests as “inchworms.”)

No matter which of these caterpillars you’ve got, you can control small populations by simply examining the leaves and the base of your plants for the pests. If you find any, remove them (and squish ’em). If you see wasps hovering around your fall vegetables, lucky you! They may be hunting for the caterpillars, too.

One natural predator of these pests is the trichogramma wasp. This tiny wasp looks for the eggs of host insects, drills a hole and deposits her own eggs into the host egg. While many areas of the US and Mexico have native populations of the trichogramma wasp, the predator’s effectiveness is limited – but it can be increased by releasing wasps purchased from organic-gardening supply stores. Contact your local Extension office to find out if you have native wasps, and what varieties are best to purchase for release in your area.

If you’ve got large numbers of cabbageworms or cabbage loopers, you might try dusting your plants with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis). Bt is a very effective biological control. You can find it at hardware stores and garden centers at a reasonable price, and you can also order it from organic-gardening catalogs.

Even though many of summer’s pest problems disappear with the cooler weather, you still need to protect your fall flowers and vegetables from hungry insects. With a bit of diligent pest control, you can enjoy all the freshness – and beauty – a fall kitchen garden can bring!