Seeing leaves on your fruit trees rolled up like a sandwich wrap? Could be leafrollers, a family of insects that attack the leaves of fruit trees like apples, pears, and peaches. They also target some ornamental trees like ash, poplar, and oak. Leafroller larvae feed on tender, new leaves, giving them a ragged appearance; they […]
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With the significant rainfall of the past three winters, the deluge may be more than some yards can handle. Did you experience torrents of water pouring off your roof and pooling around your treasured shade trees? Puddles spotting your lawn or ponding in your veggie garden? Why is too much of this precious stuff a
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Noticed any branches of your pear or apple trees that look like they’ve been torched or scorched? Might be a case of fire blight, a nasty bacterial disease. It most frequently affects pome fruit trees (apples and pears) and related plants – crabapple, ornamental pear, pyracantha, and quince. Infections may appear scattered throughout the crown
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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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The bane of many gardeners, especially rose-growing ones, is the gopher. While this voracious pest loves roses, they’re not fussy – in fact, there aren’t a lot they DON’T like! The pocket gopher is named for the external, fur-lined cheek pouches the critters use to carry food to their storage area. Their exposed chisel-like teeth
If you have some new seedling coming up, and some seem to be clipped off right at the soil level, it may be cutworms. These pests feed on blossoms and leaves of many ornamental plants and attack most edible garden crops, clipping off seedling stems near or just below the soil level. A few species
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Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a science-based decision-making process that combines tools and strategies to identify and manage pests. It’s not one specific action or tactic; it is the combination of all actions that reduce the impact of pests while minimizing negative effects on the environment. In addition to its primary purpose of reducing numbers
What is IPM and why use it? Read More »
Rust is one of the most common fungal diseases of garden plants, there are thousands of different species that infect trees, shrubs, ferns, perennials, edibles and more, like pear, peach, and pine, rhododendrons, roses, chrysanthemums, fuchsias, geraniums, lilies, and snapdragons. Rusts have been a scourge to humans for centuries, impacting important food and fiber crops
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If you’ve got something messing up your lawn and you’re not sure what it is, look at how they dig. Skunks create holes about the size of their nose when they dig for earthworms, grubs, and other soil insects with their long, front claws. Raccoons enjoy diets that are almost identical to skunks but use
Who’s messing up my lawn? Read More »
Finding clothes with tiny little holes, or silk-like webbing? Maybe you’ve got webbing clothes moths. They tend to hide when disturbed, so you might not notice them until they’ve damaged your fabric, fur, or feathered items. They’re especially drawn to fabrics with sweat, food, or urine stains. It’s the larval form of the insect that
Holes in your clothes? Read More »
