Horticulture Hotline 06/27/23
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
The rain and the warmer night time temperatures have finally got the zoysia grass to come out of dormancy! Just in time with July Fourth right around the corner. The rain has really brought out the fire ants. With the Riverdogs and Battery in full swing, it is a good time to enjoy a game. Both venues provide a lot of entertainment and green grass! Oak Leaf Blister (a fungus) is visible, luckily generally no treatment required.
I was asked the other day while grocery shopping, “I have these insects in my bathroom that have little pinchers, and when you crush them, they smell bad. What are they and how can I get rid of them?”
When she mentioned the pinchers, I was thinking earwigs. When she mentioned the foul odor when you crushed them, I knew for sure she was talking about earwigs!
Earwigs like dead organic matter and moist areas. If you have recently mulched your beds, sometimes you will see earwigs. They are considered mainly an outdoor pest. Earwigs feed on plant material; however, they rarely eat enough to damage plants.
If you have a pest control company under contract, give them a call and they can get rid of this problem very quickly. If you would rather, do it yourself, the first place to start is to check and be sure you have a 12–24-inch barrier around your house that is free of vegetation and mulch. Caulk any gaps around pipes, wires, windows, doors or any other area that might be an entry point for the earwig or any other pest (roaches, ants, etc.). Using yellow bug lights on the outside of your house will attract fewer earwigs and other insects to your house. Any wood piles, deep pile of leaves, or other areas that stay moist should be removed. If you have wood for your fire place, you can stack it above ground on metal wood holders, cinder blocks or pallets away from your house. These are all good practices to help prevent insects and to protect your house.
If these cultural practices do not take care of the problem, you may consider using a control product around the perimeter of your house and any moisture harboring areas (wood pile). There are many good products (InTice 10 Perimeter NOP Compliant is very good) on the market that would help you control earwigs as well as other insects.
Another similar pest that we have been getting lots of calls at Possum’s about is lawn shrimp. Lawn shrimp like a humid, high moisture area to live and feed. Ground covers like Asiatic Jasmine, Ivy and other moist mulched areas are perfect places for these crustaceans to live. They feed on decaying plant and animal matter. When they enter your house or garage, lawn shrimp are seeking a better life-style; however, they usually die because there is no food for them (decaying plant and animal matter) and the air is too dry. Lawn shrimp also like the moisture from wood piles, flower pots or any other stationary object they can live underneath.
Since lawn shrimp mainly feed on decaying debris, they are more a nuisance than anything else. If you are tired of removing them from your dwelling, you may want to remove their habitats from your entry points to your house. Sealing thresholds of doorways will save on your electric bill and help keep these and other uninvited guest outside your house. Although there are not any chemicals labeled for the control of lawn shrimp (they are a crustacean not an insect), any good perimeter pest control product should hasten their demise as well as help with roaches and other household pests.
There are many Pest Management Professionals that can help you with these and other pests if you would rather leave it up to the professionals.
Always read, understand, and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.
