Search Results for: label/insects

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After the (Drought, Flood, Fire, Pest Outbreak)

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5 Steps to Creating Resilient Gardens and Landscapes Record-breaking droughts, floods and wildfires, as well as outbreaks of diseases and insects, have taken their toll on garden and landscape plants nationwide. Although it’s impossible to fully insulate your gardens and landscape against damage, there are steps you can take to rejuvenate affected plantings and build more resiliency into your plantings. Embrace Diversity and Avoid Monoc…

What’s Bugging Your Plants?

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Online resources can help you find the best solutions for control of pests and diseases. Beneficial praying mantises eat insects that damage garden plants. The azalea looked healthy and happy last week. The shrub was full of leafy new growth and loaded with flower buds. This morning, all that remains are the flower buds—every leaf has been stripped. What did this? The power of the internet makes my sleuth work easier than ever before. U…

1 Million People Want to Know

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…nd what went into producing it. So how come I can’t have the right to know what’s in the food I buy in the store? That’s the goal of the Just Label It campaign, which last month submitted a record-breaking 1.1 million signatures to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in favor of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods. And in polls by ABC, MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, Consumer Reports and others, consistently…

The Good Bugs

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When you’re deciding how to manage pests in your garden and landscape, keep this in mind: First, do no harm. The vast majority of garden visitors are either helpful or harmless. Learn to identify ladybug larvae, right. They are major aphid eaters. More Information Read Most Bugs are Good Bugs for more detail and photos of beneficial creatures. As you make your first visits to the garden this year, you’re sure to see a few bu…

Houseplant Hitchhikers

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Before bringing them back inside, inspect houseplants carefully for hitchhiking pests they may have picked up. Before bringing them back inside, inspect houseplants carefully for hitchhiking pests they may have picked up. Temperatures are dipping into the low 50s to upper 40s nearly every night now and the weatherman has uttered the F word. “Expect scattered frost in the cold mountain hollows,” he said this week. Yes, summer is win…

Spinosad: a New Option for Control of Lily Leaf Beetles

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…en the earth-friendly ones. At first, I tried neem, a relatively harmless spray that does wonders on aphids and controls blackspot on roses. It worked to control the larvae the first year, but I had to spray frequently (every 10 to 15 days). The second year, I couldn’t keep the larvae under control. My lily crop was hit hard, and I got few blooms. Last year, I decided to resort to a systemic called imidacloprid. The results were instantaneo…

Update on Bats

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…ects each night, and nursing females eat twice that amount. Some are important pollinators, too. Austin, Texas is one place that bats are quite visible and celebrated. The crevices under the Congress Avenue Bridge house up to 1.5 million bats during peak season in late summer. Tourists flock to the area to watch the bats take flight each evening at dusk and can even call a hot line for information about best viewing times and locations. Bats r…

Why Bats are Beneficial

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…on International, says that bats are primary predators of night-flying insects, including many of the most damaging agricultural pests, as well as bugs that bedevil backyard gatherings. A single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour. The millions of Mexican free-tailed bats at Bat Conservation International’s Bracken Cave in Texas eat up to 200 tons of insects each summer night. And a favorite target is an e…

Sticky Houseplants

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When aphids strike your houseplants, it’s fairly easy to gain control. Aphids suck the juice out of tender leaves, flowers, buds and stems, leaving sticky residue and discarded exoskeletons. Stickiness. Uh-oh. Tropical houseplants jostle for space under the grow lights in my basement from October to May, waiting for the summer warmth to return. Like any population living in a crowded, unnatural environment, these plants are pron…

Attract Bug-Eating Birds

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There are many reasons to make your yard and garden more welcoming to birds. But here’s one more: pest control. Most backyard birds eat a combination of seeds, berries and insects. A rose-breasted grosbeak There are many reasons to make your yard and garden more welcoming to birds. But here’s one more: pest control. Most backyard birds eat a combination of seeds, berries and insects. But in late spring and early summer, birds a…