“She found that the sprinkler was hitting my hostas every night, which was feeding the slugs. I moved a timer, and she sent a note listing what she had checked.”
Lynn F.Perennial and vegetable beds
Garden and home pest care, Ann Arbor
Pest care that works around your garden's pollinators.
I'm Nasreen Siddiqui, a licensed applicator. I look at what is actually going on in your beds and your house, reach for a barrier or a trap before a spray, and write down what I did and where.
- Nothing applied to open blooms
- A written note after every visit
- Product list on request
The garden year
What the year looks like in an Ann Arbor garden
Dates move with the weather, so I update your own calendar after each walk. This is the usual run in southeast Michigan.
Dec to Mar
Winter
Quiet in the beds, busy in the walls. Mice and the insects that overwinter are the pests of this season, and they are indoors. It is a good time to find the gaps they used and close them.
The foundation line, the porch and the garage door seal
Stored pots, bulbs and compost bins checked for visitors
You pick the dates for the spring and summer walks
Apr to May
Spring
Everything wakes at once, ants and ticks included. Aphids arrive on new growth, slugs find the hostas and ants come back to the kitchen. Most of what I do now is look and move things, not spray.
Aphids rinsed off or pruned out when that is enough
Tick check along the edge where lawn meets woods
Nothing applied to anything in bloom
Jun to Aug
Summer
Japanese beetles, borers and wasp nests. Beetles feed through July, squash and zucchini get borers, and paper wasps start nests under the eaves. Bloom is at its peak, so this is the season the pledge matters most.
Hand-picking and netting before anything else
Wasp nests removed early or late in the day, when the colony is home
Anything near flowers waits until they close or are over
Sep to Nov
Fall
Seal the house before the beetles and mice move in. Boxelder bugs, stink bugs and lady beetles gather on warm south walls, and mice look for a way in once nights drop. A fall walk is when I seal and when you cut back.
Door sweeps, screens and the gaps around pipes
Spent vegetable plants and leaf litter cleared where pests overwinter
A last look at the beds and a list for next year
The pledge
The pollinator pledge, in the order I do it
A pledge is easy to say. This is what it looks like on a visit, one step after another.
- 01
Step 1: Walk the garden with you
I look at the beds and the house, and I note what is in bloom and what is about to be. Bloom decides the day, and sometimes it decides that I come back next week.
- 02
Step 2: Name the problem
I work out what is actually there before I choose anything. Many insects in a bed are doing useful work, and I tell you which ones to leave alone.
- 03
Step 3: Start with what touches nothing else
Hand-removal, netting, row covers, a trap, a sealed gap, a change in how water sits. Most visits end here.
- 04
Step 4: Treat the spot, not the garden
If something has to be applied, it goes on the affected plants and no others, never on open blooms, early or late in the day when pollinators are least active, exactly as the label directs.
- 05
Step 5: Write down what I used
You get a note with the product, the place, the date and how long to keep children and pets away. The product list is yours on request.
- 06
Step 6: Come back and look
I return in two or three weeks to see whether it worked. If it didn't, I tell you, and we try the next step rather than a stronger version of the same one.
In the vegetable beds
A fabric cover and a good look beat a spray.
Row covers keep beetles and moths off young plants and put nothing on the leaves. They come off when the squash and beans flower, so the bees can get in. Between those two dates a weekly look catches most problems while they are still one plant.
I check under the leaves and at the base, where trouble starts
Drip lines keep leaves dry, which slugs and mildew dislike
Covers go on early and come off at the first flower
Integrated pest management
What I reach for first, next and last
The order is the method. I move down a column only when the one before has been tried or doesn't fit the problem.
| The problem | First | Next | Last, if needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aphids on new growth | FirstRinse them off with water and pinch out the worst tips | NextA soap-based spray on the affected shoots, in the evening | Last, if neededA label-approved product on that plant only, out of bloom |
| Japanese beetles | FirstPick by hand into soapy water, and net the plants they like | NextCover small plants until the season passes | Last, if neededTreat the host plant after its flowers are over |
| Slugs on the hostas | FirstTake away hiding places and water in the morning, not at night | NextShallow traps and hand-picking at dusk | Last, if neededA label-approved bait scattered thin, kept off the plants |
| Ants in the kitchen | FirstFollow the trail and seal where it comes in | NextBait placed where they feed, out of reach of pets | Last, if neededA band of treatment on the foundation, not the beds |
| Mice in the fall | FirstSteel mesh in the gaps and a new door sweep | NextSnap traps in covered stations along the walls | Last, if neededA tamper-resistant station outdoors, only if traps can't work |
Who comes to your garden
I came to this from gardening, not the other way round.
Siddiqui Garden Pest Care is one person: me. I do the walk, the work and the follow-up myself, which is why the visits are spaced out and why I'd rather tell you a problem will pass than sell you a treatment for it.
“If I can't tell you what I'm looking at, I'll say so and send a photo to someone who can.”
Customers
What the notes led to
“She came before the wasps got going under the porch roof and took the nest down in the evening. She also told me which flowers to leave alone for a day.”
Joi E.Porch and front garden
“Ants in the kitchen every May. She traced them to a gap behind the sink, sealed it, put bait where they fed, and came back two weeks later to check.”
Waclaw K.Kitchen and back door
Sample reviews.
Where I work
Ann Arbor and the Washtenaw towns around it
One person and one route, so I keep to the towns I can reach in a normal day and still come back for the check visit.
- Washtenaw County: Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Milan, Manchester, Whitmore Lake, Pittsfield Township, Scio Township, Superior Township
- Wayne County: Plymouth, Northville
I don't work in Livingston or Oakland counties, in Detroit, or south of Milan.
Questions I hear first
What about my children and pets?
I can't promise that, and nobody who applies a product should. What I can do is use a product only where it is needed, follow the label, tell you which areas to keep children and pets out of and for how long, and send you the label if you ask.
Will you spray my flowers?
Not while they are in open bloom. If a plant has a problem I treat that plant, early or late in the day, and I tell you which plants and why. Often the answer is a barrier, a trap or a pair of gloves.
Do you use organic products?
Sometimes. Where a product is OMRI-listed and does the job, I will use it. Where it doesn't work, or can hurt a bee if it is used carelessly, I won't pick it for the label alone. You get a note with whichever one I used.
How often should I schedule a visit?
Most gardens need a walk in spring, midsummer and early fall; a house alone needs less. We set the dates after the first walk, and I skip any visit that isn't needed.
What if the problem comes back?
If the pest I treated is back in the same spot within 30 days, I return at no charge. That doesn't cover a new pest, a new spot, or something that changed after the visit, such as a gap that opened up. Results vary with the pest and the season.
What does it cost?
It depends on the size of the garden, what I find and how many visits it takes. How the price is worked out, and when you get the number, is written on the cost page. No work starts until you have the scope in writing.
Contact
Tell me what you're seeing
Say where it is, in the garden or the house, and what it has done to the plants. A photo helps; text me one if that's easier. I reply during office hours.
Phone(734) 555-0100
Hours
- Monday – FridayToday
- 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- SaturdayToday
- 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
- SundayToday
- Closed