How to Identify and Control Garlic Pests | Gardener's Path

12.06.2023 - 01:11 / gardenerspath.com / Laura Ojeda Melchor

Garlic is a stinky, pungent bulb. For this reason, it’s logical to assume that most pests will leave it alone.

It’s even used as a pest deterrent in the garden, planted as a companion for roses, peppers, and tomatoes to keep pesky insects away.

But we think it’s delicious, so why shouldn’t the bugs? There are some creepy crawlies out there that are immune to garlic’s sulfuric pungency.

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In this article, we’ll take a look at the top five pests that can damage this fragrant member of the Allium genus.

Here are the pests we’ll cover:

There are several types of bulb mites that plague garlic and other Alliums, but according to researchers Agnieszka Majer, Brian Rector, et al., in a paper published in the Experimental and Applied Acarology Journal, dry bulb mites are one of the most significant and widespread garlic pests.

Dry bulb mites are part of the same taxonomic class, Arachnida, as spiders and ticks. This pesky critter is considered an eriophyid mite, though its scientific name is Aceria tulipae.

Dry bulb mites are usually 0.3 millimeters long or smaller at maturity, and look like tiny, curled worms.

They go through their entire life cycle in just one to two weeks, so you’re likely to see them in every stage – from egg to larva to nymph to adult – at any time of the year. If you have a strong magnifying glass, that is.

These mites spend the winter inside stored cloves or in the ground with fall-planted garlic.

True to their name, dry bulb mites feed exclusively on bulbs: garlic, tulip, onion, and lily, to be exact.

They live between the layers of a garlic clove or