Pest Detective

Updated 1/2024

This class is designed to help home gardeners learn how to prevent against, diagnose, and respond to problems in your yard and garden using Integrated Pest Management practices. This class topic is part of the Horticultural Skills priority of the Master Gardener program. 

If you enjoyed this class, please join us for another. Current and upcoming classes are posted on our website. 

Class Handouts

• Slide Presentation (Slide print-out)

• Participant Class Handout

Related Handouts

• Ramsey County Master Gardener Diagnostic Clinic: Plant Problem Form

• Ramsey County Master Gardener Diagnostic Clinic: Insect Problem Form

• Diagnosing Plant Problems (Virginia State University Cooperative Extension) 

• Contain Those Crawlers! Protecting Minnesota from Invasive Earthworms (MN DNR)

• Lyme Disease Awareness and Prevention (Elizabeth Maloney, MD)

• Invasive Species Alert—Jumping Worms (University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum)

Online Resources

PRO-TIP: Google “site:edu garden insects” (or site:gov) for research-based advice

• University of MN Extension: Yard & Garden Website 

• University of MN Extension Ask A Master Gardener Tool

• Ramsey County Yard Waste Sites

• University of MN Extension Soil Testing Laboratory 

Books

• The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect & Disease Control by Barbara W. Ellis

• Insects of the North Woods by Jeffrey Hahn

• Common Backyard Weeds of the Upper Midwest by Teresa Marrone

• Weeds of the Midwestern United States and Central Canada edited by Charles T. Bryson and Michael S. DeFelice

• The Truth About Garden Remedies by Jeff Gillman

• The Informed Gardener by Linda Chalker-Scott