Late Spring Pest Control

Hungry Hungry Insects

The Spring frenzy of fresh new leaf growth and flowers can attract a multitude of sucking and chewing insect pests, that will enjoy feasting on your garden.

Insect pests such as aphids, (pictured) mealybug, thrips and whiteflies feed on sweet and sugary plant sap. This not only depletes the plants of important nutrients but can cause leaves to permanently discolour and distort and sap sucking insects can also transmit plant viruses. And to add insult to injury, these insects excrete a substance called honeydew, which unsightly sooty mould can then grow on. Sooty mould appears as a dark grey or black ash like covering over leaves and stems. Honeydew will also attract ants, which you can see travelling up and down plant stems.

Chewing insects like caterpillars can rapidly eat through lots of foliage, stems, buds and flowers.

Ornamental shrubs and trees like roses, hibiscus, camellias, azaleas, gardenias and fuchsias as well as annual flowers like petunias and marigolds can be susceptible to a range of damaging sucking and chewing insect pests. Vegetables are also prone to a range of insect pests, all eager to destroy your precious home-grown harvest.

Sometimes it’s hard to know which insect pest is causing the damage – so it’s handy to have a spray which will control a wide range of both chewing and sucking insect pests. Yates Nature’s Way Organic Citrus, Vegie Ornamental Spray Ready to Use will control many of the most common garden insect pests on ornamental plants, fruit trees and vegetables, including aphids, mealybug, caterpillars, thrips, mites and whitefly. Spray foliage thoroughly when insect pests are seen, including underneath the leaves where insects often hide and respray weekly if required. Yates Nature’s Way Organic Citrus, Vegie Ornamental Spray Ready to Use contains a combination of pyrethrin, an extract from the pyrethrum daisy, and vegetable oil. It is certified for use in organic gardening by BioGro NZ.

Scale Control

The sweet, sugary sap that flows through plants during the Spring growth flush is irresistible to sap sucking scale. Scale can be white, brown, pink or black and appear as raised bumps on leaves and stems.

Symptoms of a scale infestation include:

• Small yellow spots appearing on leaves, which correspond with scale on the underside of the leaves.

• Ants running up and down plants. Ants are attracted to the sticky honeydew that scale excrete.

• Sooty mould, which is a disease that looks like a dark grey covering of ash over leaves and stems. Sooty mould grows on the honeydew produced by the scale insects

Scale can be controlled with regular sprays of Yates Conqueror Spraying Oil. Once the scale insects are controlled, there will be no more honeydew and the ants and sooty mould will disappear. Dead scale may remain on the plant for a few weeks after spraying.

Yates Conqueror Spraying Oil is certified for use in organic gardening by BioGro NZ, so is ideal for people wanting to use organic methods of pest control in their gardens.

Yates Conqueror Spraying Oil also controls other common insect pests, including:

• Aphids, mealybug and European red mite on roses and ornamental plants.

• Aphids and citrus red mite on citrus.

• Aphids and European red mite on apples, pears and stone fruit during winter dormancy.

Organic Caterpillar Control

Lots of lovely fresh spring growth can attract destructive caterpillars. Even the smallest of caterpillars can chew through mountains of foliage and left unchecked can result in heartbreaking skeletonised leaves and ruined flowers.


Organic gardeners can easily control these hungry caterpillars by spraying vegies, fruit, flowers and shrubs each week with Yates Nature’s Way Organic Citrus, Vegie Ornamental Spray Ready to Use. It contains natural pyrethrin from the pyrethrum daisy, and canola oil, for dual action insect control. Spray leaves thoroughly, including the undersides, as this is where caterpillars often hide.


Yates Nature’s Way Citrus, Vegie & Ornamental Insect Spray is BioGro certified for use in organic gardens, and has only a one day withholding period.