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with the hose.roses, dahlias, fuchsias, lavender, rosemary and many garden plantsspring, summer, autumnMore common garden pestsCapsid bugsEuonymous scalePhormium mealybugScale insects

Sap-sucking aphids are problematic for currant bushes. In spring, they cause the foliage to become blistered and puckered, as well as discolouring areas, leaving yellowish-green or red patches. The aphids then fly to hedge woundwort, a wildflower, for the rest of the summer, but ...

Earwigs, which can be up to 14mm long, hide during the day and emerge at night to feed. The females lay eggs in late-winter, usually in the soil, which hatch in spring. Although earwigs can damage plants, they also eat small pests and their eggs, including aphids and codling moth...

Nesting female bees cut out immediately obvious elliptical shapes from the edges of a leaf to make their cells for laying eggs. Since one female might need 20 or so cells, that's a lot of leaf cutting, particularly when the bee keeps returning to the same plant. It's only a signi...

.a range of ornamental plants, trees, shrubs, herbs, some vegetables, fruitspring, summerMore common garden pestsAphidsScale insectsFlea beetleEarwigs

Pea and bean weevils are a nuisance but rarely a major problem on the veg patch. The larvae live in the soil and feed on the root nodules. Then when the adults emerge in June and July, they climb up the plants and eat the edges of the leaves. Thankfully, these 4mm-long, brown, sn...

The rose leaf rolling sawfly injects a chemical into young rose leaves to cause them to curl protectively around her eggs. Within a week the eggs hatch into green caterpillars that start to eat their home. In mid-summer, leaving behind skeletonised foliage, they crawl down into t...

Purple-striped green beetles, 8mm long, congregate among the leaves, which they feed on. The beetles lay elongated eggs beneath the leaves from September and continue to do so on warm days right through winter. These hatch after a couple of weeks and the larvae feed on the plants...

Turn over a leaf and you'll see 2mm long white flies. With a life cycle of just three weeks, whitefly breed very fast. Both adults and offspring are sap feeders and a severe attack will weaken a plant. They excrete the sticky excess, called honeydew, onto lower leaves where it en...

The mint leaf beetle, Chrysolina herbacea is a native, iridescent green beetle that feeds on the leaves of the mint family in the south of the UK. Both the adults and their fat, black larvae feast on the foliage.Holes in leaves, made by iridescent green beetles and their and fat,...