Pesticide

Caring for a lawn and landscape is a lot of work! Mowing, fertilization, seeding and weed control in a lawn, along with planting, pruning and pest management in trees and landscape areas requires more time than many homeowners have available or the equipment to accomplish. Plus, the identification of weeds and pests often needs a professional's knowledge.

Common pests of houseplants include aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies and spider mites, and it only takes a few insects hitchhiking into your home to multiply into an outbreak. Many gardeners prefer not to use standard insecticides, especially in the house. That may be one of the reasons why insecticidal soaps, both pre-mixed and homemade, have been gaining in popularity.

As if 2023 hasn’t thrown gardeners enough curves already - like drought damage in lawns, shrubs, trees and ornamentals – soon it will be Japanese beetle season. Wonderful, that’s all we need!

But we must be realistic and acknowledge the fact – Japanese beetles are here to stay. Once an invasive species like this one comes into an area, there is no good way to eliminate them completely. So, what can gardeners do - especially with an eye toward long-term damage reduction?

Each gardener decides how to handle pest problems that arise in their lawn or landscape. A variety of techniques can be used in most cases, including cultural, biological, mechanical, and chemical controls. But when deciding to use chemicals, gardeners should keep in mind that application of a herbicide, fungicide or insecticide is more effective if it's used in combination with cultural, biological or mechanical methods, and not rely on chemicals alone to create a healthy, vigorous landscape.

Oystershell scale is a very secretive little insect that usually goes unnoticed. But despite it’s tiny size, this insect can cause significant damage in trees or shrubs. Some gardeners aren’t even aware the insects are present as they prune out dead branches the insects have killed. If you had branches die on a rose, dogwood or lilac shrub last year, inspect the base of branches for the presence of oystershell scale.

Midsummer is the season of solitary wasps. These wasps are called solitary because they do not build large colonies like paper wasps or yellow jackets. They are predators and prey on spiders, crickets, cicadas and other insects. Solitary wasps paralyze their prey and drag it to a burrow. They lay an egg on the paralyzed prey, which hatches into a larva that feeds on the paralyzed insect. Solitary warps are not aggressive and would only sting someone who is foolish enough to handle the live wasp.

As the growing season draws to an end and we put away our gardening equipment, it’s also important to store any remaining pesticide products properly to prevent contamination and maintain product effectiveness for next year. But even more important, being careless with pesticide storage is an open invitation to disaster, in the form of a pesticide poisoning or spill.