Recognising Common Pests on UK Garden Plants

By How to Grow Herbs in Recycled Containers
Comments 35
25 Jul 2026

Recognising Common Pests on UK Garden Plants

Learn the damage before you learn the pest

Every garden holds a cast of small creatures that want to eat your plants, and the trick is not to panic at the first hole. A healthy plot can tolerate a fair amount of nibbling. What matters is noticing when something is gaining the upper hand, so you can step in early and gently, without reaching for a spray the moment you spot a problem.

The best habit you can develop is a slow walk round once or twice a week from late spring. Tilt a few leaves, look at the newest growth, slide a pot aside and check the compost surface. Most problems announce themselves long before a plant is in real trouble, and early action usually means nothing more than your fingertips, a torch and a small watering can.

Aphids: the sap-sucking crowd

Aphids — greenfly and blackfly to most of us — cluster on soft new growth, flower buds and the undersides of leaves. They excrete honeydew, the sticky film that turns leaves shiny and attracts ants, which farm the aphids and see off their predators. Left alone, honeydew grows a film of sooty mould that dulls leaves and slows growth. Distorted shoot tips and curled leaf edges are strong clues.

Deal with them quickly but softly:

Rub small colonies off with your thumb and forefinger, or blast them away with a sharp jet of water.
Check roses, nasturtiums and fruit bushes weekly, and squash clusters before they multiply.
Encourage predators: ladybirds, lacewing larvae, hoverfly larvae and parasitic wasps all do the work for you. A patch of flowering umbellifers — dill, fennel, cow parsley — is a standing invitation.
If numbers are high, use a horticultural soap or fatty-acid spray on affected shoots. It works on contact, so it must land on the insects, and it will harm predators on those leaves too.
Do not reach for a high-nitrogen feed to compensate. Soft, sappy growth simply makes more aphid food.

Slugs and snails: the night shift

Slugs do most of their work after dark and on damp days, which is why the damage can feel mysterious. Look for irregular holes, shredded seedlings and unmistakable trails of slime. Smaller keeled slugs cause the worst harm below ground, hollowing out potato tubers and grazing roots.

Water in the morning rather than the evening, so the surface dries before nightfall. Barriers work well when kept clean: copper tape around pots, wool pellets, and a rough grit or crushed eggshell line around vulnerable seedlings, topped up after heavy rain. Set a plank or an upturned grapefruit half in the border and check it each morning — a nightly collection carried to a hedge or wild corner reduces numbers faster than you might expect.

If you must use pellets, choose ferric phosphate ones and use them sparingly. Metaldehyde products have been withdrawn in the UK precisely because of the harm they cause to hedgehogs, birds and pets. For a heavy infestation in a confined space, a biological control is the gentler answer.

Vine weevil: the pest you rarely see

Vine weevil catches people out, because the adult damage looks trivial while the real harm is hidden. Adults nibble neat half-moon notches from the leaf margins of heathers, rhododendrons, bergenia, primulas and fuchsias. They feed at night and cannot fly, so they walk from pot to pot. All the adults are female, and each can lay hundreds of eggs in the compost.

The larvae are white, C-shaped and legless, living in the root zone and eating roots and corms until a plant wilts and collapses with no obvious cause above ground. Plants in pots are most at risk. Tip a suspect plant out and search the compost for larvae curled beside the stems or just below the surface.

Control is about timing. In late summer and early autumn, water a vine-weevil nematode drench onto damp compost while the soil is still warm and the larvae are young. Keep pots from drying out for the following fortnight, and repeat in spring if the problem persists. Adult weevils can be found with a torch after dark and picked off — tedious, but effective.

Other visitors worth knowing

Capsid bugs leave small holes and distorted shoot tips on fuchsias and chrysanthemums; caterpillars of the cabbage white strip brassica leaves to lace, so check the underside for yellow eggs and squash them. Lily beetles and their grubs strip lilies and fritillaries — pick adults off promptly, as they drop and hide when disturbed. Red spider mite shows as fine pale speckling and webbing in hot, dry spells, and a daily misting of the leaves usually sees it off.

Build a routine, and let the garden help

Set aside ten minutes a week. Check new growth for aphids, lift the rim of a few pots for weevils, look for slime trails first thing in the morning, and inspect any plant that wilts despite damp compost. A small notebook helps you remember what appeared where and when.

The most useful thing you can do is leave room for the wildlife that eats the problem. Sparrows, blue tits, hedgehogs, frogs, ground beetles and centipedes all reduce numbers quietly and free of charge. Avoid broad-spectrum sprays, accept a few holey leaves, and save stronger measures for the plants that genuinely need them. Your garden will be calmer for it — and so will the hedgerows and heathland edges that share its insects.

Plant Care

Protecting Garden Wildlife During Cold Spells

A compact pond can attract frogs, newts and dragonflies. Site it partly shaded, add native oxygenators and provide a gentle slope for wildlife to enter.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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Heathland species such as heather, gorse and bilberry need acidic conditions. Test your soil pH before planting and avoid adding lime.

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