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Pests & Diseases
Home page of the pest, disease and weed department.
Every week something is attacking your plants. Check them out and be prepared to deal with the situation.
Identify the weeds giving you trouble and learn how to deal with them.
Simple search facility to help track down whatever is bugging you.
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Name search.
Use the search box on the left if you know the name of the pest you are looking for. The first result will load into the panel below and any other matches are listed in the right-hand panel. Only common names loaded at present.
Symptom search.
Result will be displayed below. Please scroll down to view.
If you have a sick plant with no obvious cause present, use the search box on the right entering one or two words describing the problem. Simple phrases like 'leaves eaten' or single keywords like 'yellow' work best. As with the name search, matches are listed in the right column and displayed in the panel below.
Search Results.
1 results found.
Stinging nettle
- Pest type - Weed
- Infects - Non-specific,
- Host plants-
- Symptoms- NULL:
Just the sight of those saw toothed leaves is enough to strike terror into all small boys and many adults too. Most people recognize this plant instantly and the memory is soon refreshed after an encounter with its vicious stinging hairs.
The plant dies back in the winter only to grow and spread from the perennial rootstock in the spring. Do not allow this weed to get a hold in any corner of the garden, or you may end up in tears. The plants may reach heights of up to 2m but 1m - 1.5m is more common.
Treatment.
Isolated specimens may be dug out with a garden fork if the situation permits easy access. Always treat this plant with respect as dead or alive, it still stings. Larger areas or corners where the nettles are well established may require cutting down first with suitable equipment then the entire area forked over, (Hard work but fast results) or allowing new shoots to grow before spraying with Weedkiller. (Easy but slow results).
Stinging nettles are useful
Like the dandelion, this plant too has many uses. As this plant is the host for the caterpillars of many of this countries nicest butterflies, it has been the fashion of recent years to leave a wilderness patch somewhere in the garden and allow these nettles to grow unhindered. This is the "Smart set's" cover-up for being very lazy. Take it from me, there are enough stinging nettles beside the railway and in your neigbour's garden to feed all the caterpillars in creation. Grow nice flowers in your garden and the caterpillars will hatch into beautiful butterflies and fly straight to your flowers.
Leaves. The leaves can be cooked and served like spinach but I confess not to be fond of either. Various country recepies can be found for herbal teas and beer but again these are an acquired taste. Natural dyes are extracted from the leaves and stems producing colours in shades between yellow and green.
Stems. The stems of this plant were once made into string and cloth but that was before somebody invented sheep and used the wool instead.