After the Wet Weather
The incredibly wet winter behind us, though you may now be dealing with some of its impacts. Time to get ahead of the curve with preventing pest problems:
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Earth Day is Almost Here!
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. This video highlights a news broadcast on the first Earth Day more than 50 years ago. While the message is bleak for the time, the good news is that a lot of progress has been
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Look for the Garden Good Guys
Beneficial insects aka natural enemies or good bugs are predators that help control pests. Some common ones you’re likely to see in the spring garden include: Green lacewings – recognizable with their slender pale green body, delicate gossamer wings and immense golden eyes. The adult consumes only pollen and nectar; it’s the young form that
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The Sucking Pests of Spring
Are your roses sporting new leaves that glisten in the sunlight and are slightly sticky to the touch? See a trail of ants crawling up the trunk of your plum tree? How about powdery black stuff on your camellia bush or the garden furniture next to it? All are indicators that sucking insects may have
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Gophers or moles?
Seeing mounds of soil, or open holes in your grass or flowerbeds? Could be a gopher or a mole. Both of these critters create tunnels and are active underground, improving the soil by aerating it and mixing nutrients. But they are otherwise very different. Gophers are rodents that eat only plants, favoring bulbs and roots,
It’s perfect weather for rust
What happens when you combine mild weather, a rain that lasts for a day or two and rapidly growing plants fighting for space? Nature has provided perfect growing conditions for the disease rust. One of the most common fungal diseases of garden plants, there are thousands of different species of rust that infect trees, shrubs,
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Herbicides can kill more than just weeds
A fast and easy way to get rid of weeds is to use one of the popular weed killers – just spray it on and the weeds die within days. But what if that same product contacts desirable plants, like your roses, vegetables, or fruit trees? You certainly don’t want them exposed. Herbicides, aka weed
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Unwelcome Visitors
We’ve had a lot more flooding this winter than most, and it can impact the natural nesting areas of rodents, forcing them to seek higher ground including inside your home (particularly into “high ground” such as attics). Storm debris, cut tree trunks and limbs, and materials may become lodged in drainage ditches or along streams
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Wet Weather and Carpenter Ants
With the abundant rain this winter, your house may have areas with wet and decaying wood that can become an ideal nesting site for carpenter ants. Even small amounts of damage from flying debris or trees that strike the siding, roof shingles, rain gutters or electrical meter bases can allow moisture to collect in wood,
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Time for the Annual Backyard Bird Count
Want to be a citizen scientist for a few days? Join the annual Great Backyard Bird Count! For four days in February, the world comes together for the love of birds. People spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and reporting them to us. These observations
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