Horticulture Hotline 12/04/17
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
Prevention and protection is the only way to be successful
in controlling certain pest. Boring insects, sod webworms, “the nasty rascal,
the chinch bug”, roaches, and termites are just a few of the many. Fungus is
another pest best controlled preventatively.
On the radio show, “The
Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from noon to 1:00, on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker),
this week David and I (The Super Garden Hero was doing good deeds elsewhere)
had 2 questions about borers, so I decided to write a little about them today.
Borers are generally moths or beetles as adults. They fly
around in the spring and lay eggs on leaf petioles (where the little stem that
comes off a leaf attaches to the main stem), cracks in the bark, or wounds in
the plant. With the recent hurricanes we have more cracks in the bark and
wounds.
Generally, when the egg hatches, a larva emerges and tunnels
inside the twig, tree, or vine. The larva is the part of the life cycle that
does the damage by eating the cambium and effecting the flow of nutrients up
and down the tree. Since larva get inside the tree, it makes it very difficult
to control with spray or dust applications. The borer overwinters as a larva
and emerges generally in the spring as an adult.
Treating the tree with a systemic product like Dominion or
Safari as a ground drench as well as spraying the tree with Bifen XTS and
Pentra-Bark to protect the tree from adults that are laying eggs and an oil
product to suffocate eggs is a good strategy for high value trees. Depending on
the borer, you would target your spraying when the adults are active (usually
in the spring). Always read, understand and follow product label and consider a
professional. Trees are expensive to remove and replace, and they are valuable to
the landscape in many ways.
Prevention is critical with borers because once they are
inside the tree or plant, the plant protects them. If you have borers, using
certain fertilizer and watering techniques can help you keep the trees alive
until you can manage the borers to an acceptable level. With certain borers in
certain trees you can outgrow the damage.
Pest Management Professionals do a great job of protecting
our homes from termites. You would not want to watch your house get eaten up
then think, “hey, I might have a problem with my house. The second story toilet
just fell through the floor with my mother-in-law on it.”
Termites do a lot of damage very quickly. The cost of
protecting your house to prevent the damage is very low. If you have a
reputable Pest Management Professional do the work, their insurance should
cover any damage unless you violated the contract (example – added on a porch
and did not let them know).
Termites are one insect that should be left to a
professional to control. Termites attack what is generally our highest price
asset – our home.
Brown Patch, moles, roaches, rats? Is this warm weather
setting us up for winter kill?
Always read, understand and follow
product label. The product label is a Federal Law.
