Asparagus

Blossoms, leaves, stems, and fruit rot; infections often enter through flowers, wounds, or dying tissue and can spread in storage.

Favored By

Cool to moderate humid weather, prolonged leaf wetness, crowding, poor airflow, dead blossoms, overripe fruit, and plant wounds.

What It Looks Like

Soft tan-to-brown rot covered by fuzzy gray spores; infected blossoms collapse and stems may develop pale cankers.

Prevention

Space and prune plants; ventilate protected growing areas; use drip irrigation; remove dead flowers and damaged tissue; harvest before fruit becomes overripe.

Management

Remove and discard infected tissue without shaking spores; lower humidity; sanitize harvest containers; use a labeled fungicide only when timed preventively.

Wounded vegetables and storage organs rapidly become watery, foul-smelling, and unmarketable in the garden or after harvest.

Favored By

Warm wet conditions, wounds, insect injury, contaminated tools or wash water, poor ventilation, and warm storage.

What It Looks Like

Tissue becomes soft, water-soaked, cream to tan, and collapses into a wet mass; outer skin may remain briefly intact and odor is often strong.

Prevention

Prevent wounds; control insects; harvest in dry weather; sanitize tools and containers; cool produce quickly; provide drainage and ventilation.

Management

Remove rotting produce and contaminated debris; disinfect containers; do not store damaged vegetables with sound produce. No spray cures established soft rot.

Sap-feeding colonies distort tender growth, cause yellowing and sticky honeydew, and may transmit plant viruses.

Favored By

Soft new growth, excess nitrogen, sheltered plants, and warm moderate weather.

What It Looks Like

Tiny (about 1/16–1/8 in), soft, pear-shaped insects; green, black, yellow, gray, or pink; two tailpipe-like cornicles.

Prevention

Avoid excess nitrogen; inspect leaf undersides; conserve lady beetles, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitoid wasps; control ants that protect aphids.

Management

Knock off with water; prune badly infested tips; use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil with thorough contact coverage. Repeat only as label directs.

Rasping-sucking feeding scars leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit; some species transmit viruses.

Favored By

Hot, dry weather; flowers and tender growth; weeds and plant debris; stressed plants.

What It Looks Like

Very slender, usually 1/25–1/8 in, yellow, tan, brown, or black; adults have narrow fringed wings.

Prevention

Start with clean plants; remove weeds and spent blossoms; keep plants evenly watered; conserve minute pirate bugs and other predators.

Management

Dislodge with water; remove heavily damaged tissue; use insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, or spinosad where labeled, timed to susceptible stages.

Mites remove cell contents, causing pale stippling, bronzing, leaf drop, and fine webbing during heavy infestations.

Favored By

Hot, dry, dusty conditions; drought-stressed plants; excess nitrogen; loss of predatory mites from broad-spectrum sprays.

What It Looks Like

Minute, eight-legged mites, yellow-green to reddish, usually with two dark body spots; eggs are round; fine webbing may be visible.

Prevention

Reduce dust; water plants adequately; inspect leaf undersides; avoid unnecessary broad-spectrum insecticides; isolate infested transplants.

Management

Hose leaf undersides; remove badly infested leaves; use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil. Ensure contact and repeat per label because eggs survive.

Adults skeletonize leaves and eat flowers and fruit; larvae are white grubs that feed on turf roots.

Favored By

Sunny irrigated turf, moist soil during egg laying, and abundant favored ornamentals or fruit crops.

What It Looks Like

Metallic green adult about 3/8 in with coppery wing covers and white hair tufts along abdomen; larvae are C-shaped white grubs.

Prevention

Choose less-preferred plants; reduce unnecessary midsummer lawn irrigation; remove attractive, damaged fruit; do not use beetle traps near valued plants.

Management

Handpick into soapy water in early morning; protect high-value plants with netting; use labeled products carefully and avoid spraying open flowers.

Adults scar spears; adults and larvae strip fern foliage, weakening crowns and causing crooked growth.

Favored By

Unharvested spears, volunteer asparagus, old stalks, and dense fern growth.

What It Looks Like

Adult about 1/4 in, blue-black with cream spots and reddish margin; gray-green larvae are humpbacked with dark heads.

Prevention

Harvest cleanly and frequently; remove volunteers and dead stalks; maintain plant vigor; allow beneficial insects to work.

Management

Handpick adults, larvae, and dark eggs; brush eggs from spears; use a labeled insecticide after harvest if populations threaten fern growth.

Adults and nymphs pierce fruit and vegetables, causing dimpling, corky spots, discoloration, and malformed produce.

Favored By

Warm seasons, wooded edges, diverse fruiting hosts, and nearby overwintering structures.

What It Looks Like

Shield-shaped mottled brown bug about 5/8 in; alternating light-dark marks on abdomen edge and white bands on antennae.

Prevention

Remove weeds and alternate hosts near production where practical; use fine netting; seal buildings to reduce overwintering; conserve egg parasitoids.

Management

Handpick or knock into soapy water; use traps for monitoring rather than control; apply labeled insecticides only when repeated feeding threatens crops.

They rasp irregular holes in leaves, stems, seedlings, and low fruit and leave silvery slime trails.

Favored By

Moist shade, dense mulch, weeds, boards, stones, and frequent evening irrigation.

What It Looks Like

Soft-bodied mollusks; snails carry shells while slugs do not; active mostly at night or during wet weather.

Prevention

Water in morning; improve airflow and drainage; remove hiding places and weeds; keep mulch away from seedling stems; use barriers where practical.

Management

Handpick at night; use board traps; apply iron phosphate bait according to label and protect it from children, pets, and wildlife.

Browse foliage, buds, flowers, and fruit; damage often occurs high above the ground with ragged torn stems.

Favored By

High deer density, drought or winter food shortage, gardens near woods, and unfenced plantings.

What It Looks Like

Large hoofed mammal; cloven tracks and pellet droppings; browsing can reach roughly 6 ft.

Prevention

Install an 8-ft deer fence or properly designed electric fence; use cages and netting; choose less-preferred plants while recognizing none are deer-proof.

Management

Exclude first; rotate repellents labeled for edible crops and reapply after rain; protect young trees with guards. Follow local wildlife laws.

Clip seedlings and tender stems, browse leafy greens and beans, and gnaw bark in winter.

Favored By

Dense cover, brush piles, fence gaps, drought, and abundant tender vegetation.

What It Looks Like

Small mammal with long ears and short white tail; leaves round pellets and clean, angled cuts close to the ground.

Prevention

Use 1-in poultry mesh at least 2 ft high with bottom buried 3–6 in; remove nearby cover; use trunk guards.

Management

Exclude and protect individual beds; use repellents labeled for edible crops; trapping or lethal control is regulated and should follow local law.

Gnaw roots, crowns, bulbs, and bark and create surface runways, sometimes killing young trees and perennials.

Favored By

Dense grass, heavy mulch against trunks, snow cover, weeds, and protected groundcover.

What It Looks Like

Stocky mouse-like rodent with short tail and small ears; narrow surface runways and gnaw marks are common.

Prevention

Mow and remove weeds; keep mulch back from trunks; use 1/4-in hardware-cloth guards buried several inches; reduce dense cover.

Management

Use properly placed snap traps inside protected boxes where legal; repair habitat conditions; rodenticides carry risks and must follow label and local rules.