Mitch Baker: Hi! I'm Mitch Baker with American Plant. We're talking about great gardening tips for June.

Now we're going to discuss some common summer garden pests. One of the first things we see here on these Black-Eyed Susans; Aphids, pretty common on Black-Eyed Susans; a high population of Aphids. So in order to control them we're going to go ahead and release a beneficial insect, some Ladybugs.

We want to release some late in the day when they are in the shade so that they're not released in full sun. So we've released them right on to the Aphids. They have to have a food supply or they will fly away. And these Ladybugs are busy right now eating all the Aphids they can find and they will clean up these plants in just a matter of a few hours.

Beneficial insects are great in the garden. Now we've already released some Ladybugs, but we can also place these Praying Mantis Egg Cases in the garden to help with insect control through the summer.

Now over here, I found some Slug damage on this Heuchera, this is pretty common on these large leaf plants in the shade like this, where the moisture is being held and that damage is easy to identify by the ragged inefficient holes that are chewed into the leaves. That's the kind of damage that Slugs do. It leaves big holes in the leaves and tattered edges. So to control Slugs, we're going to use our granular form of iron-phosphate, sprinkled around the base of the plant. Under the leaves like that where it's not coming into direct contact with the rain, it tends to last longer so make sure you it under the foliage of these large plants like Hostas and Heuchera, that will help reduce the Slug damage and get it on early in the season. You won't have so much of a problem later. Now here's a different pest you may have to deal with. This is Garlic Mustard an invasive weed. And since it's been introduced, it could be found now in just about all states in the US.

Easy to identify by the small white flowers and the upright seeds that are developing. So this is the time you want to get this and pull it out before it has time to disperse those seeds. It has got a rather shallow root system and can be pulled out quiet easily. Wherever you see it, just take a few minutes and pull these out. It's a good way to reduce the population and prevent the spread of this invasive weed. Now here's a good example of Powdery Mildew on these two perennials. It's fairly common but also fairly easy to control with the horticultural oil. We also have some Spittlebug on this one, not really threatening the health of the plant and that can be gently hosed off with water. So those are some pests you may encounter this summer and some solutions I hope are helpful. Next we're going to talk about a major pest, Deer.