If you recently planted cabbage, broccoli, or kale, (often called Brassicas and cole crops) keep an eye out for cabbageworms! The adult cabbageworm is a white butterfly with one to four black spots on its wings. They lay eggs individually on the leaves of brassica plants. Larvae are green caterpillars that chew on the leaves […]
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Is your lawn being ravaged by a nighttime marauder? Might be skunks or raccoons, or maybe even both! In late summer and fall, these two varmints damage lawns as they search for earthworms, soil-dwelling insects, and insect larvae, such as white grubs. They dig up the lawn leaving behind large patches of loose turf, eat
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If we have a lot more flooding this winter, 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 and can
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Seeing what looks like giant mosquitos around lawns, pastures, or other grassy areas? These are crane flies, rather large flies with slender bodies and long, fragile legs that break off easily. Although similar in appearance to a giant mosquito, they are not a kind of mosquito at all and do not bite, even though some
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Ants on your artichoke plant? Your plum tree or leafy vegetables? They’re a prime indicator that sucking insects are feasting on your plants. There’s a group of soft-bodied insects — aphids, mealybugs, soft scale and whiteflies being the most common, that feed by sucking juices from plants. The direct damage they inflict on the plant
Flies that find their way into the kitchen, or buzz around the barbeque are common this time of year. These irritating pest flies include the house fly, face fly, stable fly, and blow flies. They breed in animal and food wastes and decaying organic material, where they can pick up bacteria and viruses that may
Along with the warm, sunny days of summer comes a scourge of pests – spider mites. These little arachnids, related to spiders, look like tiny moving dots. The eight-legged, oval shaped adults live in colonies, primarily on the under-surfaces of leaves and a single colony may contain hundreds of individuals. They overwinter as mated females
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If you’ve grown tomatoes for a few years, chances are you use plants known to be free of and resistant to two common deadly fungal diseases, fusarium and verticillium wilt. But did you know that the blackened branch on a prized Japanese maple, towering ash, or verdant pepper tree may be the result of infection
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Summer is here and so are yellowjackets – those one-half to one-inch-long bright yellow wasps with black strips and their signature “narrow” waist. Yellowjackets prey on other insects and scavenge on human food and garbage. They will fiercely defend their nests – in holes in the ground, inside wall cavities or hanging gray paper-looking ones,
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Ever see a creepy, crawly, worm-like creature with oodles of legs in your yard or even in your house? Could be a centipede or a millipede. These strange looking critters are not insects – they’re more closely related to lobsters, crayfish, and shrimp, but are land dwellers. They’re most active at night around moist habitats
What’s that Crawling in the Garage? Read More »
