Trap Crops for Pests

In the world of pest control there are many ways to keep pests at bay that don't involve a sprayer. One I've experimented with is growing trap crops. Trap crops are plants that certain pests really like. When you plant them in the garden, most of the pests go to the trap crop where you can control them more efficiently.

Using Trap Crops
There's some controversy surrounding the use of trap crops. Some plants really do attract pesky aphids and beetles, but the question is, do they attract pests away from other plants in your garden, or do they attract pests to your garden from someplace else? I'd hate to think I was attracting a population of Mexican bean beetles from a neighboring garden with my bed of marigolds.

Ornamental Trap Crops
Nasturtiums attract aphids by the score. I've always planted them as a sacrificial crop, pinching off and destroying stems as they become infested. Aphids also favor sunflowers, and unlike the nasturtiums, whose infested leaves have to be pinched off, sunflowers can just be left alone to grow. They are so tough that the aphids cause little damage, and they still produce nice seed heads for our birds to enjoy.

Buckwheat for Deer Control
If you're plagued with deer like I am, consider planting buckwheat as a trap crop for Bambi and friends. A neighbor tells me that deer go straight for the stands of buckwheat in her garden, leaving her perennial flowers alone. It's worth a try.

Buckwheat has a number of other worthy attributes. It's an excellent summer cover crop, growing dense enough to crowd out weeds, it attracts droves of bees, and it has a shallow root system, making it easy to till into the soil at the end of the season. It does, however, take over a garden if allowed to set seed. The trick to growing buckwheat is to allow it to flower long enough for the bees to collect pollen, but cut it down before it sets seed.

Photography by Patt Kasa/NationalGardening

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