It can be so frustrating when pests munch on your beautiful dahlias! It’s important to have an overall Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPM), but when certain pests visit your garden, here are some solutions you could try.
Rabbits
Rabbits love young, tender dahlias! To deter rabbits, we suggest cage traps which will allow you to capture the bunnies. Talk with your local wildlife control office about the best places to release rabbits you capture. Or… (and I know this sounds weird), but most hunting stores sell bottle of coyote or cougar urine which hunters use to disguise their scent. Dripping a few drops on an old t-shirt and staking the t-shirt squares in your garden with shish-ka-bob skewers is a very effective way to deter rabbits from entering. The urine must be reapplied after rain.
Deer
We receive lots of questions about deer and dahlias. The truth is, deer are opportunistic and indiscriminate eaters. We have not had trouble with them invading our dahlias, but they certainly can if they decide it’s the easiest/tastiest treat around. The most effective deterrent for deer is a physical barrier, like a tall fence. You could also try the coyote or cougar urine around your garden for deer too, but your mileage may vary with that being effective.
Voles
Voles are a more difficult pest to capture or deter, but if your dahlias are not growing well, you can determine whether these burrowing rodents are to blame by scouting for their tunnels and/or carefully digging up your tubers to look for teeth marks. If voles are indeed a problem for you in your home garden, we recommend contacting your local pest control service to discuss options.
Slugs
For slug control, we recommend Sluggo Plus sprinkled sparingly around your garden. This also must be re-applied after rain.
Chewing Pests
As the season progresses, depending on your microclimate, you may notice chewing pests like caterpillars or beetles damaging your dahlias, or you might see small insects, like thrips, invading your plants and blooms. If you have kept weed pressure to a minimum, and if you have mulched your dahlias, you should see less insect damage, but pests can still attack your flower garden.
Depending on your personal comfort level, there are many products at your local Feed & Seed that can help you kill or deter these pests. You can use an OMRI-approved (organic) product like Safer Soap or Safer Brand Insecticidal Soap with Pyrethrin (made with chrysanthemum oils). These products are kinder to the environment, but still can harm pollinators, so we choose to target-spray on problem areas them just before dusk when most bees and wasps have gone to their homes and most moths are not yet active. You can also use more effective systemic, time-release products like BioAdvanced All in One Rose and Flower Care as a soil drench or in granulated form which eliminates the chance of spraying pollinators but makes your plants toxic to chewing and sucking bugs and triples as a fungicide and fertilizer.
If you are a home gardener, you likely won’t need a full-blown IPM, but walking into each season with a good plan for what to do if pests visit your garden (which they likely will!) can get you ahead of the curve and make your dahlia growing experience so much sweeter. Save this post for future reference and have a great growing season!
