I’m going to begin this article with a rather bold statement, and it will probably upset many gardeners.

Squash bugs aren’t killing your squash plants.

Excuse me? What did you say?

I said squash bugs aren’t killing your squash plants.

Let me get this straight, Tracey. You’re telling me the pathetic-looking squash in my garden, you know, the wilting, yellow dying ones with the crusty brown leaves, are not the result of the hundreds of squash bugs crawling all over them?

That is correct, my friend.

I hate to break it to you, but it’s highly unlikely squash bugs have murdered your plants, at least not by themselves. It’s almost certain that your squash is also being attacked by the silent, sneaky squash bug you can’t see.  

Squash vine borers.

Yup, squash vine borers are brilliant pests, causing visible signs of disease and decay yet remaining out of sight. Meanwhile, squash bugs have been taking the rap for the death and destruction of cucurbits for ages.

Rethink How You Diagnose Ailing Squash

The problem is that squash bugs are so prevalent that it’s rare to find a plant infested with squash borers that doesn’t have squash bugs, too. And because the squash bugs are what we see, we immediately link the damage from the borers to the bugs.

So, we spray our squash with neem, pick off the squash bugs and remove leaves with eggs on them. Often, the plant dies anyway, and we chalk it up to not dealing with the squash bugs quickly enough or too big of an infestation.

This is rarely the case.

Don’t get me wrong; squash bugs can damage squash plants, but unless the plant is already weakened by disease or is a new transplant, squash bugs alone will rarely do enough damage to kill a squash plant. It’s usually the one-two punch of squash vine borers and squash bugs, and only one of the two needs our attention.

Nine times out of ten, we’ve missed the real problem, which is now lying dormant in our soil, ready to ruin next year’s squash harvest. Until today.

I want you to repeat after me.

When my squash plants are horrors, it’s probably squash borers.

Sorry, it’s hard to find something that rhymes with borer.

How about this?

When my squash plants are ailing, must be squash borers prevailing.

Okay, I’m going to stop now. You get the idea.

From now on, at the first sign of decline in your cucurbits, squash vine borers are the first thing you should look for. Yes, even before you reach for the watering can. Remember, squash is naturally drought resistant.

Squash Vine Borer – Getting to Know Your Squash’s Worst Nightmare

The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is an all-too-common pest native to North America, found throughout the United States and parts of Canada. It affects plants in the cucurbit family — squash, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, and melons. Borers cause significant damage to the vascular system, ultimately killing the plant if left unchecked.

Life Cycle

Keep in mind that the actual timing of each stage depends on where you live. Also, if you live in the southern half of the United States, you could be dealing with two generations of squash vine borer per year as the moths emerge much earlier in the season.

If squash vine borers are a problem, I recommend reaching out to your county extension office to get more detailed information on when they emerge in your area and how long the female moths are actively laying eggs.

Egg Stage:

• Timing: Early to mid-summer
• Duration: About 1 week
• Description: Adult female squash vine borers lay eggs on the stems, close to the base of cucurbit plants. The eggs are small, reddish-brown, and typically laid in groups of 6 to 8. Each female moth can lay several batches of eggs during her lifetime.

Larva (Caterpillar) Stage:

• Timing: Late summer to early fall
• Duration: 3 to 4 weeks
• Description: Once the eggs hatch, the larva emerges and begins to tunnel into the stem of the host plant. The larva is creamy white with a brown head, and it feeds on the inner tissues of the stem. As it feeds, it creates tunnels and chambers within the stem. This feeding can weaken the plant and lead to wilting and dieback.

Pupa Stage:

• Timing: Early fall
• Duration: About 2 to 3 weeks
• Description: After the larval feeding is complete, the larva exits the stem and burrows into the soil to pupate. The pupa is brown, shiny, cylindrical and about an inch long. It remains in the soil through the winter and transforms into an adult moth.

Adult Moth Stage:

• Timing: Late spring to early summer (typically May to June, depending on the region)
• Duration: 1 to 2 weeks (as adults)
• Description: The adult squash vine borer is a day-flying moth with a metallic green body and orange-black markings. The wings are clear with black edges. It emerges from the pupa in late spring or early summer.
• The adults are active during the day and visit flowers for nectar. Female moths lay eggs on the stems of host plants within an inch or two of soil level.

Damage and Signs of Squash Vine Borers

Is your squash plant looking unwell? It’s probably squash vine borers.

Okay, okay. Keep reading.

Frass – the Tell Tale Marker of Squash Vine Borers

I list this first mainly because it usually accompanies all the other squash vine borer symptoms. Check carefully around the base of the plant and flip some of the vines over. Close to the ground or on the side of the vine resting against the dirt, you will find a pale yellow or light green substance that resembles fine sawdust.

This stuff is called frass, which is a nice way of saying squash vine borer poop. It usually sends gardeners running to Google when they find it on their squash plants. However, if you know what to look for, there are signs of squash vine borers long before you find tiny piles of larva poo.  

Wilting Leaves

Wilting leaves are the first sign of squash vine borers. Because they burrow into the stems, the borers damage the plant’s vascular system, which prevents the plant from moving water and essential nutrients out to the vines and leaves, so they wilt.  

Yellow Leaves and Discolored Vines

As the squash borers move further into the plant, the leaves will continue to degrade, often turning yellow before dying. You may also notice yellow discoloration of vines and stems as well.  

Dying/Dead Leaves From the Center of the Plant Outward

The plant will die from the center out as the borer activity continues. You’ll notice leaves and vines turning brown and dying.

Related Reading: 5 Things Your Zucchini Leaves Are Trying To Tell You

Stems Riddled with Holes/Woody in Appearance

The base of the plant may have holes in it or appear woody; stems are hollowed out and crumbly. At this point, it’s best to proceed directly to this article’s “advanced infestation” portion.

Getting Rid of Squash Vine Borer

Most of the time, fighting squash vine borer is a losing battle because we manage to find them once our squash is past the point of no return. However, if you pay attention to your plants and find borers at the first sign of a problem (wilting leaves), you can eliminate them with patience and diligence.

To do that, you have to remove the borers from the plant.

There are two methods; I suggest using both as you’ll have a better chance of saving your squash. Perform a search and destroy mission every few days until you no longer find any new larvae in the stems or eggs on the stems. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s the only way to save your squash.

Manually Remove the Larva

Once you know what to look for, finding where a squash borer is hiding out is not hard. Usually, it involves finding frass or the last wilting leaf on a vine before healthy leaves begin growing again. Look for discolored stems as well. Turn the vine over at this node, and you will probably see frass.

Using a clean and sterile knife, slice open the stem to reveal the larva. Often, they will have already chewed a hole in the stem, and you can see them without cutting too far.

Scoop out the larva, crush it, or pierce it with your knife. Clean your knife each time so you aren’t introducing bacteria throughout the plant.

Bury the cut leaf node a couple of inches below the soil. This will allow the plant to heal and put down new roots, which will help to counteract the vascular damage done by the squash vine borers.

Inject Your Squash Plants with Bacillus thuringiensis

Once you notice you have squash vine borers, you can go on the offensive with Bt. As the borers prefer to burrow at the plant’s base and leaf nodes, inject these sites with Bacillus thuringiensis.

The bacteria paralyze the caterpillar’s digestive tract. Unable to eat, they die off a few days after ingesting the Bt. Due to its effectiveness and because it’s harmless to mammals, birds and other insects, it’s one of the most popular organic biological methods of pest control in the world and available to purchase cheaply here on Amazon.

You can pick up hypodermic syringes at your local feed store or big box agriculture supply stores such as Tractor Supply and Rural King.

Mix the Bt according to the instructions on the package and fill your syringe with the solution. Inject approximately one cc/ml into each joint and the base of the stem. Repeat this process once a week until you’ve killed off the borers.

Advanced Squash Vine Borer Infestations

The best thing you can do with an advanced infestation is to rip up all your squash plants and burn them. The sooner, the better. You’ll destroy the larva still hanging out in the vines and stems of the plant before they have a chance to move into the soil.  

If you end up with a bad infestation, turning the soil at the end of the season where you grew squash is a good idea. Once mature, the larva will pupate in the soil over winter. Turning the soil will kill any pupa hanging out in it. I suggest turning the soil at least twice, a few days apart, to ensure all squash vine borer pupa are unearthed and dry out.

Squash Vine Borer Prevention

You’re probably sick of hearing it, especially amid an all-out battle against squash vine borers and way past the point of prevention, but pest prevention is the best way to deal with pests. This information will save you a lot of trouble when the next growing season rolls around, so you can actually have a squash harvest rather than a squashed harvest.

Wrapped for Freshness

The female moth lays eggs a mere inch or so above soil level on the stems of your favorite cucurbits. You can easily prevent her from doing so with something you already have in one of your kitchen drawers – aluminum foil.

When it’s time to transplant your squash outdoors, use thin strips of aluminum foil and wrap them loosely around the base of the stem of your squash plant. Start wrapping just below soil level and continue up the stem about six inches. Remember, keep the aluminum foil loose to allow the stem to grow.

Dig down into the soil a little bit to cover the stem below the soil level with foil. Then, push the soil around the bottom of the wrapped stem.

Along with wrapping the base, growing and staking your zucchini and other summer squash vertically can help prevent squash vine borers and things like powdery mildew.

Make Sure Your Squash is Up to Date on Its Shots

Another great way to prevent squash vine borer infestations is to inoculate your squash plants with Bt when the moths are active. Check with your local county extension office (you can use this interactive map to find yours) to find out when squash vine borer moths are active in your area and begin injecting the stem and the base of leaves with Bt.

This is much easier to do as a preventative as the plant will be much smaller when the moths are actively laying eggs. Using the same method described earlier in the article, inoculate each leaf stem and the base of your plant with Bt once a week while moths are laying eggs. (Again, check with your county extension office.)

Inspect Plants for Eggs

Wrapping the stems and inoculating with Bt is usually enough to keep squash vine borers from getting a foothold in your garden, but it’s always a good idea to check your plants for signs of pests. Look for singular brown dots on your squash stems and vines close to the ground. Scrape them off with your fingernail as you find them.

Crop Rotation

Beyond replenishing nutrients used by different plants, crop rotation is an important tool in preventing recurring pest problems. Many pests winter over in the soil, including the squash vine borer. Moving where you plant your squash can help prevent another infestation, especially if you have tilled up the area where you planted squash the previous year.

Two Things That Don’t Work

Covering your plants rarely works, as the moths are often active around the time your squash plants start producing flowers. Unless you plan on hand-pollinating your squash all season long, you’ll need to uncover your plants. If you have pupa in the soil from the previous year, you’re just trapping any emerging moths in with your squash.

Spraying Bt on the plant rarely works as you need to coincide spraying with the small time window when the larva emerges from the egg and burrows into the stem.

After reading this article, I hope you’ll put these practices in place and never have to lose out on a season of delicious squash again. Oh, and if the whole squash bug thing is still bothering you, I’ve written an article on how to deal with them as well.

The post Dealing With Squash Vine Borer – It’s Not Squash Bugs Killing Your Plants appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Tomato gardeners, I’d like to paint an all-too-familiar scene for you. You’re out in the garden, happily picking ripe tomatoes from your plants, when you notice a twiggy, leafless branch. You recoil in shock; what on earth could have done it? There were definitely leaves on that branch yesterday.

Looking around, you suddenly notice several tomato plants with gnawed branches.

You scan the plants, looking for the culprit, but to no avail. So, you give up. Whatever it is, it must have moved on.

Nope.

The next day, your tomato plants are sporting even fewer leaves. It’s getting serious now. You’ve got tomatoes at risk of sunscald; the plants need leaves to photosynthesize energy, and you can’t find what’s eating your plants.

That’s when you see them. Large grenade-shaped caterpillar poop at the base of your tomato plant.

Oh no, tomato hornworms!

You search desperately for the chubby little munching machines and manage to find a few.

The problem is these chonky caterpillars have evolved to blend in seamlessly with their favorite host plants – tomatoes and tobacco. As they eat, their skin changes to match the plants they are nibbling on.

Their camouflage is so good that it’s only when they’ve eaten half your tomato plants and grown as long and thick as your finger that you can finally spot them. And often, the only thing that makes them visible is when they play host to the bright-white eggs of a parasite wasp.

Of course, that’s just the big fat ones that are days away from becoming a pupa.

What about the little ones? You know, where there’s one, there are likely dozens more. Those tiny tomato hornworms are feasting on your plants, and who knows how much damage they will do until you manage to find them all.

That is unless you own a UV flashlight.

Yup, this inexpensive and simple tool can save your tomatoes and provide an evening of goofy garden fun.

You can pick one up on Amazon. We used my Sweetie’s UV flashlight – an Alonefire SV003. (He collects uranium glass and brings his UV flashlight whenever we go antiquing.)

Oh yes, those fat, tomato-destroying caterpillars might be experts at blending in during the daylight hours. But when the sun goes down, they simply can’t hide from the beam of a UV flashlight.

We took to the garden after hours to see how well this little trick works and were blown away. None of these photos have been doctored in Photoshop. Some were taken with a mobile phone camera, and others with my fancy Nikon. The results speak for themselves.

(The results also show that I need to remember to put sunscreen on the back of my hands in the future. Eeps!)

Regardless of size or where they were hiding, the tomato hornworms stuck out like a big, glowing thumb!

After a couple of nighttime visits to the tomato plants, you’ll soon be rid of tomato hornworms.

You can drop them in a bowl of soapy water to drown, or if you have chickens, you can feed the hornworms to them. Ours certainly appreciated the fat, juicy treats. They took great delight in stealing the caterpillars from each other and running around the chicken run with their prize before another hen snatched it away.

Other Things That Glow in the Garden

Out of curiosity, I checked out my kale under the blacklight. (I grow Dazzling Blue kale because it’s the only kale I find palatable.) Blammo! With the first pass of the UV flashlight, there was a big ‘ol imported cabbageworm and several smaller caterpillars (that I have yet to ID) hanging out on my kale.

Apparently, most species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) fluoresce in the larva stage. They have phosphors in their skin, which emit light when exposed to radiation. The radiation from the UV light causes the electrons in the atoms to excite, and hey presto, your tomato-munching monster becomes a glow worm.

Many moths and butterflies have body parts that will fluoresce in their adult stage, and often, the eggs do, too.

If you’re a fan of butterflies and moths, grab your UV flashlight and start looking at night for the larva. It will be easier to find them during the dark hours. Plus, it’s interesting to see what parts of them glow at night under the UV light. Monarch butterfly caterpillars look really cool!

Got kids or grandkids?

This would be a fun way to get them interested in gardening while tying in the science behind photosynthesis and light wavelengths. Just make sure you’re careful with the flashlight. UV light damages the eyes, so I suggest an adult be responsible for handling the flashlight if smaller kids are involved.

Red Leaves

You’ll notice that leaves appear deep red under the UV light. That’s the chlorophyll in the plants. As plants absorb light, it’s used to create energy via photosynthesis. But not all the light is used; some of that energy is released as heat and some as red light. Normally, we can’t see the red light with the naked eye, but with a UV flashlight, suddenly, it becomes visible.

Tips for Tomato Hornworm Hunting

• Wait until it’s good and dark out. An hour after sunset is a good time to shoot for.
• Turn off any outside lights that shine into your garden.
• Wear dark clothing.
• Bring something to put your captured caterpillars in.
• Shine the UV flashlight all over the plant from many angles, above and below.
• A pair of gloves is handy if you’re a bit squeamish. While the caterpillars can’t harm you (they don’t bite, and that intimidating ‘horn’ is completely harmless), they do like to hang on to your plants for dear life, and they’re a bit squishy.
• Get ready for giggles. There’s something inherently goofy about wandering around your garden in the dark with a UV flashlight searching for the live-action version of Eric Karle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar.

UV Light Safety

It’s important to remember that UV light can damage your eyes, so don’t shine the flashlight directly in your or someone else’s face. Keep your UV flashlight away from children.

The post Hunting Tomato Hornworms With a UV Flashlight appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Nothing spoils a summer evening faster than the high-pitched hum of an incoming mosquito. And you know it’s never one; they always bring friends. It only takes a few bites to send everyone running back indoors.

Of course, the internet is no help. A quick Google search for “natural mosquito repellent” yields tons of options that range from slightly helpful to completely ineffective.

But when it comes to repelling mosquitoes naturally, what works? Is slathering something on our skin really the best option? Read on to find out and take back your summer evenings.

What Do Noah & the World Health Organization Have in Common?

I love a good cheesy fridge magnet. You know the type; goofy magnets picked up on your travels, or the one you got from your office Secret Santa that reads, “I’d rather be (insert hobby)ing!”

The best fridge magnet I’ve ever seen is Noah standing on the deck of the ark, with animals peeking out from behind him. Printed below the ark is, “If Noah had been smart, he would have swatted those two mosquitoes.”

Seriously, dude, way to drop the ball.

But I share that to make a point.

The human race has been fending off the hungry bites of female mosquitoes for our entire existence. And yet here we are still looking for effective methods to repel mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are much more than a summertime nuisance in many parts of the world. They carry some nasty diseases. Dengue fever, West Nile virus, and Zika virus, to name a few.

By far, the most well-known and deadly mosquito-borne illness is malaria, affecting nearly half the globe and racking up a staggering 240,000,000 cases annually. Malaria kills around 600,000 people worldwide each year. (WHO.com)

Unfortunately, nearly three out of every four of those 600,000 deaths are children under five.

Well, Trace, that took a dark turn.

I promise I’m not looking down from my high horse implying that you should suck it up, buttercup, with your backyard mosquitoes because there are children in Africa who are dying. That’s not what I’m saying.

What I’m getting at is this.

Mosquitoes are one of the most researched disease vectors on the planet because they kill people, lots of people, and most of them are children. If something as simple as burning citronella incense sticks or spraying yourself down with your favorite essential oil were effective, malaria wouldn’t be endemic to most of Africa.

But it is.

So why is the internet littered with hacks, blog posts, YouTube videos and ads touting natural methods of mosquito repellent that don’t work?

Because we’re optimists! We want them to work because, in theory, they’re better than the nasty chemical alternatives.

But why don’t they work?

Why Essential Oils & Other Botanicals Aren’t Effective

Look, I’m just going to come right out and say it – essential oils suck at repelling mosquitoes. The problem with using them has to do with their very nature. Essential oils are:

Highly Concentrated

We think essential oils are safe because they’re natural, which is funny when you think about their purpose in nature. Plants produce essential oils via glandular trichomes (your tomatoes are covered in them) or other secreting organs to fill any number of roles: attract pollinators, prevent water loss, and defend against other plants and animals (many of these oils are toxic to other plants and animals).

These are powerful compounds in the plant world.

And then we take them and distill them, making them even more potent. Nearly all essential oils need to be blended with a carrier oil to be safely used topically, and even then, the dilution differs from oil to oil based on the compounds in the plant and whether or not it’s phototoxic.

Volatile

Essential oils are highly volatile. They need to be stored in dark, cool places to retain any purported benefits. So, not where mosquitoes hang out.

Essential oils and most other botanicals begin to break down immediately when you take them out of the bottle. They oxidize in the air, the sun and, if applied topically, from the heat of your skin. If you’re sweating, they break down faster. So even if you find one that does repel mosquitoes, it’s only for a little while. The constant need to reapply makes them a poor candidate for repellent.

Unregulated

Essential oils are completely unregulated by the FDA. There are no regulations imposed on the companies who manufacture them. 

• Is this safe to use on my skin, diluted or undiluted?
• Is it safe to use internally?
• Are the ingredients mixed with any synthetics?
• Is this oil photosensitive? (Will it burn the crap out of my skin if I go outdoors?)
• Has the product been stored and shipped properly to maintain potency?
• Is there an expiration date?

Who knows?

You have no assurance of the quality and safety of the product you purchase beyond what the company chooses to put on its label.

Research Has Shown They’re Ineffective

Most research into essential oils as mosquito repellents has proven that they either don’t work or only under strict laboratory conditions, i/e, no sun, no perspiration, with your arm stuck in a box full of mosquitoes.

For instance, here is a study of 38 different essential oils. Know what they found?

“When the tested oils were applied at a 10% or 50% concentration, none of them prevented mosquito bites for as long as 2 h, but the undiluted oils of Cymbopogon nardus (citronella), Pogostemon cablin (patchouli), Syzygium aromaticum (clove) and Zanthoxylum limonella (Thai name: makaen) were the most effective and provided 2 h of complete repellency.”

Two important things jump out at me:

1. The diluted oils didn’t work. (And that was in a lab.)
2. They put undiluted essential oils on a volunteer’s skin.

In the essential oil community, clove oil is known as a “hot oil,” meaning it is a huge no-no to use undiluted as it can burn your skin. If you read the study, one drop (.1mL) was applied to a 2”x3” (30 cm2) patch of skin. To cover all the areas of exposed skin when you’re outdoors and get your two hours of protection, you would need to apply a dangerous amount of undiluted oil to your skin.

Please, please, please don’t do that.

Also, clove essential oil is phototoxic! Phototoxic essential oils (and there are a lot ‘em) contain molecules called furanocoumarins which cause your skin to become photosensitive, resulting in severe burns.

Even if it was safe to put any of these oils on your skin undiluted (remember, the only concentrations found effective were undiluted), and they held up to being exposed to sun, air, and sweat, I sure hope you like the way they smell in their most potent form because you’re going to need to wear a lot of it.

But What About Scented Candles or Plants?

Well, that’s a pretty easy one. If the distilled essential oils from plants are ineffective at repelling mosquitoes, then the unconcentrated amounts found in plants aren’t enough to repel mosquitoes either. Currently, no research shows any plants are effective at repelling mosquitoes. Nope, not even citronella.

And as for candles, again, botanical or essential oils are not good options for repelling mosquitoes. The smoke from the candle is better at deterring them.

Carbon Dioxide Mosquito Traps

We’ve known for quite some time now that one of the ways mosquitoes find humans to nibble on is the carbon dioxide we breathe out. So, it’s unsurprising that quite a few DIY carbon dioxide mosquito traps have popped up, like this one.

In theory, these should work. However, you need to consider how mosquitoes use CO₂ to find us. They look for pulses of CO₂ (breathing in and out) rather than a steady stream. They also use our body heat, color and smell to find us, so they’re using a lot of information to detect humans beyond carbon dioxide.

While you may catch a few mosquitoes with these types of traps, you would need quite a few of them around your yard/patio for them to provide effective coverage.

Take Back Your Backyard

If you’re serious about enjoying a bite-free summer, you need to take a multilevel approach. We usually think of mosquito repellent as something we put on, but removing them from your environment can be more effective than trying to keep them away from you. Adopting as many of these suggestions and mosquito traps as possible will give you the best defense.

Eliminate Breeding Grounds

Mosquitoes require still water to lay their eggs. And they will use any still water they can find, whether that’s your wheelbarrow you forgot to flip over, the birdbath in your flower bed, that bucket out behind the shed, or that puddle that never seems to dry out at the end of the driveway.

One of the most effective things you can do to keep mosquitoes at bay is to remove as many opportunities for them to lay eggs in your backyard as possible. While it’s impossible to remove all standing water, being diligent about not giving mosquitoes a place to breed will help significantly.

This is especially important if you live in areas with mosquito-borne illnesses.

• Add a fountain to decorative ponds and birdbaths to keep the water moving.
• Always put tools away.
• Flip over anything that can hold water if stored outside, i.e., buckets, wheelbarrows and even shovels.
• Add sand or other filler to puddles that last more than a week.
• Clean gutters frequently during the summer.

Wear Light-colored Clothing in the Summer

Not only will you stay cooler, but you’re 100% guaranteed to drop a bbq-sauce-covered chicken wing on your white shorts! Oh wait, no, that’s just me.

Mosquitoes are attracted to darker colors and some bright colors such as black, navy, cyan, red and orange. Choose light, neutral colors, and you’ll be less of a target. Convince your least favorite relative to wear dark colors all summer and use them as bait for top effectiveness.

Screens

There is a reason bed nets are used so often in areas where malaria is a danger – they work. Simple but effective, screens are a great way to keep mosquitoes away while you’re enjoying the outdoors.

There are plenty of inexpensive screened tents on the markets these days. There are even portable pop-up options! You can even install roll-up screens around your porch. Whether you’re looking to cover a small space or create a large backyard haven, investing in a screen tent takes you and your family off the mosquito menu for the summer.

Heading out to the woods for some hiking? Opt for a hat with a head net to keep all the bugs out, not just mosquitoes.

Start a Fire

Mosquitoes do not like smoke. Burn smoky candles (usually, the cheaper they are, the smokier they are) around the perimeter of where you’ll be hanging out to help deter mosquitoes.

If you can, a campfire is an excellent way to deter mosquitoes. Although, it can also deter humans if it’s too smokey.

Use Air to Repel Mosquitoes Naturally

Ah, mosquitoes, for as savage as they are, they’re quite delicate little buggers, aren’t they? They can’t fly at wind speeds greater than 10 mph.

Huh, you know what creates wind speeds greater than 10 mph?

Your average box fan. Also, your average ceiling fan set on high. Set up a couple of inexpensive box fans on your porch or patio to create an easy, mess-free, safe, and natural mosquito-free zone. Not to mention, it will keep other bugs at bay.

Consider adding an outdoor ceiling fan to your porch for a more permanent solution. Don’t forget the swing and the lemonade.

Fan Trap

While you’re at it, use a box fan and some window screen to create one of the most effective mosquito traps out there. Cheap, safe for the environment and easy, this mosquito trap takes minutes to set up and is ridiculously effective.

Bucket Larvae Traps

Another ridiculously effective trap uses dark, 5-gallon buckets. These are what we use on our property with amazing results. This is the method recommended by Doug Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard (which you should read if you haven’t).

You’ll need mosquito dunks, which are inexpensive and safe.

A Case for DEET – Have we been misled?

Finally, I want to talk about DEET.

DEET is probably the most hated-on insect repellent out there. If you ask most people why they don’t like DEET, you’ll get one of three answers:

“It’s bad for the environment.”

“It’s a dangerous chemical.”

“It stinks and makes my skin feel gross.”

But here’s the thing, if you ask them why it’s bad for the environment or a dangerous chemical, most folks are hard-pressed to come up with facts to support their opinions.

That’s because most of us formed our opinion of DEET from hearsay and scary headlines back in the 80s and 90s. It’s usually something about killing birds or kids having seizures and dying. Sometimes people will point to manufacturers lowering DEET concentrations in their formulations “because it’s so dangerous.”

To this day, some of the most effective mosquito-repelling tools used in the fight against malaria are DEET and permethrin. So, is DEET the big, scary chemical most believe it to be?

DEET is Not DDT

First, let’s get one thing straight. Many people mistake DEET for DDT. They are not the same thing.

DDT, or Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was a common pesticide used around the mid-century to kill mosquitoes and many other pests. It was instrumental in the fight against malaria in Africa as the mosquitoes didn’t become resistant to it. Rachel Carson’s famous book, “Silent Spring,” brought worldwide attention to the environmental effects of DDT. Her efforts eventually led to DDT being banned in the States and many other countries.

DEET and the Environment

Many people hesitate to use chemicals because they’re concerned about what happens to them when they make their way into the soil, the air and the water. And these are all good things to be concerned about. Doing your due diligence to make an informed decision is always a good idea.

So what does happen to DEET in the environment?

It degrades and gets broken down. Quickly, too. DEET does not stay in the environment for very long. In the air, it is broken down by the sun within hours. In the soil, it is broken down by the naturally occurring fungi (go mushrooms!) and bacteria in the ground in days. And in the water, DEET is broken down by aerobic microorganisms (usually bacteria) again in a matter of days. (CR.com)

The container the repellent comes in is probably more of an environmental issue than the DEET itself.

DEET and Your Kids (And You)

We all want to know what we’re putting on our skin is safe. Again, do your due diligence when making a decision.

Back in the 80s and 90s, there was a big media to-do about DEET leading to seizures, coma and death in as little as an hour….wait for it…when ingested. Naturally, the media went wild with terrifying headlines. (Shocker, I know.)

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume that most of us know better than to drink DEET.

Studies showed that the scary effects of ingesting DEET are related to its concentration in our blood and that our bodies can’t metabolize or excrete it fast enough at those levels. But what about when we apply it as directed? (Dermally, rather than chugging it.)

From the study:
“For example, 10–12 g of a 75% DEET solution applied to the skin can lead to a blood concentration of about 0.0005 mmol/L; ingestion of a similar amount of DEET can result in a blood concentration that is hundreds of times higher (1 mmol/L). The latter concentration has been associated with seizures and death. The elimination half-life of DEET is 2.5 hours, and most of the body load is metabolized by hepatic P450 enzymes, with only 10%–14% recovered unchanged in the urine.”

Did you get that? When applied to the skin, most of it is metabolized by our body within a few hours, and we pee the rest out.

So, just to be clear, don’t drink DEET.

I encourage you to read the study, “DEET-based insect repellents: safety implications for children and pregnant and lactating women,” and decide for yourself.

DEET Concentration

But what about companies using less DEET in their products?

Easy, it’s a money saver. We found that the higher the concentration, the more effective DEET is at repelling mosquitoes. But once you reach 50% concentration, you hit a wall and no longer gain longer-lasting coverage with higher concentrations. For example, 50% DEET will keep you protected longer than 30% DEET, but 75% DEET works as long as 50%.

Products containing DEET at concentrations above 50% are redundant.

And as far as DEET smelling bad and making your skin feel greasy. Yeah, I got nothing. I agree. But I still don’t go into the woods without it.

Bottom line: DEET is safe if used as directed. In other words, don’t drink it. Store it where you would other things you don’t want kids to access in your house. Use the lowest concentration possible to achieve effective results, i/e: you may want 30% DEET when hiking in the woods but only require 5-10% DEET when chilling around the backyard firepit. And wash it off as soon as you’re done enjoying the great outdoors.

The post What Really Works To Get Rid Of Mosquitoes (& Why Most Natural Repellents Don’t Work) appeared first on Rural Sprout.

The imported cabbageworm (Pieris rapae) is a notorious pest, known by gardeners all over North America.

As lovely as they are, seeing the small white butterflies flit about your brassicas causes backyard growers and commercial farmers alike to grind their teeth, muttering four-letter words. We know that below those fairy-like butterflies, their perfectly camouflaged caterpillar form is munching away on our crops.

The Imported Cabbageworm: An Introduction

Most of us don’t need an introduction; we’re already more familiar with these pale green, velvety worms than we would like. We’ve spent countless seasons watching them happily munching away on our cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale.

But every good antagonist has an origin story.

The Small White or Cabbage White, as it’s known in its native Europe, was found in North America in 1860. Like many invasive species, it was most likely a stowaway, hiding among some of its favorite food in a crate of produce bound for North America. The little fare-dodgers were first documented in Quebec City, Canada.

They certainly made themselves at home.

Within 25 years, they could be found as far south as the Gulf Coast and west as far as the Rocky Mountains. Now naturalized, they can be found everywhere in North America. This rapid spread is likely due to how adaptive they are and how many times they reproduce in a season, despite plenty of natural predators here.

The Life Cycle of the Imported Cabbageworm

The life cycle of the imported cabbageworm looks like any other butterfly or moth species: egg, larva, pupa and finally, the pretty adult butterfly. They emerge mid-spring and keep reproducing until the final generation winters over in the pupa form.

Eggs

The adult female butterfly lays several hundred yellow eggs – usually one at a time – typically on the undersides of the leaves of the plants they enjoy eating. These eggs are small, measuring around 1 mm in diameter, and are difficult to spot with the naked eye.

Larvae

After approximately one week, the eggs hatch into tiny, fuzzy jade green caterpillars. The larvae have a velvety appearance with microscopic hairs and nearly imperceptible yellow stripes running along their bodies. And they certainly don’t stay small; like most teenagers, they eat a lot. It’s during this stage when they cause the most damage and when gardeners notice the tell-tale signs of their presence.

Pupa

Once the larvae have matured, they undergo pupation. They attach themselves to stems, fences, or other nearby structures, forming a green chrysalis. The pupal stage lasts about one to two weeks, during which the caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis into an adult butterfly.

Adult

The adult imported cabbageworm is a small to medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of approximately 1.75in (32-47 mm). It has white or pale yellow wings with dark spots near the tips and black veins crisscrossing the wings. The adults can be seen fluttering around plants during the day, looking for a mate to create the next generation of brassica-destroying eggs.

What makes imported cabbageworm such a problem is their ability to produce two to three generations per season. By the time you’ve eradicated one generation, the next is quietly hatching nearby.

All You Can Eat Brassica Buffet

The imported cabbageworm is a voracious feeder and primarily targets cruciferous vegetables: cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and radishes.

Again, like most teenagers, cabbageworms are at their most destructive during this phase. Despite how slow they are, they consume a lot for their size. If you’ve got imported cabbageworms, the evidence isn’t hard to spot – irregular holes in the leaves of your brassicas and tunnels through heads of cabbages and Brussels sprouts.

And poop. Lots and lots of caterpillar poop.

You can still eat the produce (if they leave you any), but the resulting damage makes for less-than-appealing veggies. And if the infestation is too great, the damage may kill the plant.

You can see why the imported cabbageworm is such a problem for commercial growers.

Management and Control

If you live in an area where imported cabbageworm populations are an annual problem (Hi, friend!), you’ll need to implement what’s known as an integrated pest management approach. Let’s take a look at what that involves.

Cultural Control

Implementing cultural practices can help reduce the local population of cabbageworms, even if that’s only in your backyard. Cultural control practices include crop rotation, planting trap crops, and employing companion plants such as chamomile or dill to mask the scent of brassicas. Keeping up with weeding (grumble, grumble) is also important as you’re removing alternative places where they can lay eggs.  

Mechanical Control

Squash ‘em! Hand-picking the larvae (they only bite cabbages, not humans) and eggs from the plants can be a pain if you grow large quantities of their favorite foods. But it’s quite effective if you have a small garden. When hand-picking eggs and caterpillars, check the undersides of leaves for eggs.

I take a mildly disturbing delight in feeding the larva I pick off my plants to my chickens.

Two years ago, I got desperate and started growing red varieties of cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts to make it easier to spot the little turds. It’s surprisingly effective.  

If you have a large garden or grow a lot of brassicas, you’ll need to take a multi-step approach to controlling imported cabbageworm populations.

Diatomaceous Earth

Food-grade diatomaceous earth is very effective at ridding your garden of cabbageworms. However, it’s important to remember that while it’s completely safe for humans, using food-grade DE in your garden presents a dilemma as it kills all insects that come in contact with it, not just the pests. If you decide to use it on your brassicas, it must be reapplied after each rain.

Biological Control

Encouraging natural enemies of the imported cabbageworm, such as parasitic wasps and predatory insects like ladybugs and lacewings, can help keep their population in check. Plant tarragon among your brassicas, as it naturally attracts all these insects. Having a healthy population of predatory insects goes a long way in protecting all the plants in your garden.

Many songbirds happily eat both the caterpillars and the butterflies, so consider taking measures to attract more birds to your backyard.

You can also use a biological insecticide containing Bacillus thuringiensis ((Bt) that will target the larvae while minimizing harm to other insects and organisms. However, it can still kill other soft-bodied insects you might want to have around.

Natural Pesticide

If infestations are severe or other methods prove insufficient, consider using a neem oil spray to coat the effective plants. Neem does work, but you have to spray consistently and reach the undersides of the leaves as well to target any eggs.

As cute and fuzzy as they are, their cuteness wears off when you see how quickly even a small imported cabbageworm infestation can destroy your cruciferous veggies. Understanding its life cycle, feeding habits, and how to get rid of it can ensure a season full of crunchy cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli from your garden.

The post Dealing with Cabbageworm – The Bane of Brassica Lovers Everywhere appeared first on Rural Sprout.

In late spring, around the time the weather starts to be consistently nice – it happens. You’re outside, soaking up the sun, when you feel a tickle on your arm. Looking down, you see a tiny 2-3mm long, fuzzy black caterpillar inching (millimetering?) across your skin.

“Oh no,” you think, “they’re here.” Oh yes, the spongy moth infestation has begun.  

You look ahead to the next few weeks with dread, knowing you’ll experience their full life cycle in your backyard – dozens of tiny fuzzy caterpillars covering everything in your lawn while they balloon, caterpillars dangling from trees to get caught in your hair, the sound of “rain” on the leaves that’s really just the sound of thousands of caterpillars high up in the trees pooping, caterpillar poop staining the roads, finding their sticky, tan egg masses all over your trees and patio furniture…

…and the defoliation and dead plants left behind when they finally die off for the year.

For those familiar with this pest (formerly known as the gypsy moth), their arrival kicks off a summer of annoying run-ins with this pest. Depending on how bad the infestation is and the weather, these hungry caterpillars can do serious damage, even leaving dead trees in their wake.

There are things you can do to slow their spread and mitigate damage, but you have to know at what point in the life cycle to take action. Learning about this common pest is the first step in controlling and slowing its spread across the country.

The Spongy Moth – Lymantria dispar

Many of us grew up using the common name, gypsy moth, but out of respect for the Roma people, it was renamed the spongy moth a few years ago – a nod to the spongy egg masses laid by the adult female.

Here in the States, Lymantria dispar is an invasive, nonnative species. The two types of spongy moth we deal with originally come from Europe and Asia, and like many introduced species, they have few natural predators here, so their spread has been significant.

You can now find both in almost half of the United States.

In the northeast, you will find the European variety of Lymantria dispar. The moth has spread quickly here and caused enough destruction that containing it has become a high priority. The European variant is found as far south as Virginia, as far west as Wisconsin and well into Canada, including Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

The Asian variety can be found on the west coast in states like Washington and Oregon. The spread of the Asian variety of spongy moth has been much easier to contain and presents less of an issue than the European moth.

Identifying the Spongy Moth Caterpillar

When they’re tiny, they’re easy to ID, mainly due to the time of year and where you find them – everywhere, crawling on everything.

However, once the spongy moth caterpillar is a little over a centimeter long, identification is easy due to the colored spots running in two rows down its back. If you look closely, you will see first two rows of blue dots and then two rows of red dots.

The adult moths are tan, with the male being smaller and darker. The females have a wingspan of about 5.5-6.5 centimeters, and the males 3-4 cm.

Interestingly, the females are flightless here in the States and Canada, despite being able to fly in their native regions.

The egg sacks are sticky, cream-colored masses of webbing, making them easy to spot on trees.

Spongy Moth Life-cycle

I think my colorful explanation of the spongy moth life cycle at the beginning of this article is pretty accurate. However, you may want something a bit more learned.

Hatching & Ballooning

Each sticky egg mass comes alive in late April or May with anywhere from 600-1,000 tiny, black caterpillars hatching. Yes, you read that right, per egg mass.

They make their way to the end of a branch or the edge of whatever manmade item the egg mass is attached to and disperse far and wide by “ballooning” – they dangle from a long silk strand until the wind catches them and carries them away.

Because they’re so small at this point and naturally fuzzy, the wind can easily carry them as far away as half a mile. Usually, they don’t spread further than 150 yards from their egg mass.

They will keep climbing, dangling, and ballooning until they land on something edible. Or in your hair, in which case they will meet a most violent end, as no one enjoys that nasty surprise.

Into All Lives a Little Poop Must Fall, or the Instar Stage

If you’ve ever read Eric Carle’s childhood classic, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” you know what happens next.

The caterpillar will continue to consume all the foliage in its path for six to eight weeks, growing through several instar stages (molting their skin as they grow) as they do. Around this time, you can stand quietly near the trees (I wouldn’t recommend under) and hear the soft pitter-patter of caterpillar poop hitting the leaves.  

By the time they’ve completed their last instar, the males will be about two inches long and the females three inches. A drive through a wooded area with an active spongy moth infestation will show noticeable dark patches on the roads directly beneath large trees from all the caterpillar poo.

It’s Suddenly Quiet

At this point in the season, we get a short break of about two weeks as the caterpillars pupate in their burgundy cocoons.

When the adult moths emerge, we at least no longer have to worry about the foliage, as they don’t eat at this stage.

The larger female moth produces a pheromone which attracts the males. If you’ve ever watched a male spongy moth fly, you may have noticed their rather drunken back-and-forth flight pattern; this helps them pick up the scent.

The female will produce a single egg mass before dying a week after she’s pupated. Once mated, the male will continue to find other females to mate with before also dying a week after pupating.

And the Cycle Continues

The spongy egg masses, which can be as small as a dime or twice the size of a quarter, are easy to spot on bark because of their light, tan color. By the end of July or early August, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how bad next year’s infestation will be by how many egg sacks you see.

What Plants Do They Eat?

Unfortunately, the easier question to ask is what plants don’t they eat. The spongy moth nibbles on well over 300 plant species, with about half being excellent host plants to feed, hide and lay eggs on.

They prefer hardwood trees, oak being a prime target. Maple, birch, and alder are also preferred trees.

But you have to remember, just because those are the preferred trees doesn’t mean they won’t eat everything else in their path.

Can Spongy Moths Kill My Trees/Plants

The problem with these infestations is that they occur each year. A normally healthy tree can withstand being defoliated once or twice. New leaves will usually show up in midsummer. However, when you have infestations year after year, the tree is weakened, becoming less likely to bounce back and more susceptible to other pests and diseases.

When you add other factors such as drought, which is becoming more common, these annual infestations become a significant risk to your trees.

Spongy moth caterpillars can wreak havoc on smaller decorative shrubs and garden plants too.

If you live in a forested area or have many trees in your yard, the damage from a spongy moth infestation can be significant. Rarely do they limit their feeding to their preferred trees. For instance, they’ve made a mess of our beloved oak tree, but they’ve also found our apple tree and my rose bushes equally tasty, and I’m constantly picking them off of the plants in my garden.

How and When to Control Spongy Moth Infestations

While it’s unlikely we will ever eliminate the spongy moth, it’s important to slow their spread and contain them as much as possible. There are things you can do to protect your trees, shrubs and garden plants from damage each spring. But certain pest controls will only be effective during specific stages of the caterpillar’s life cycle.

You may need to adopt several forms of control for efficient pest coverage over the summer.

How We Help Spread this Invasive Species

While the female spongy moth prefers to lay her eggs on trees, she’s a terrible mother and will lay her eggs anywhere, which is why this species spreads so easily.

Anything remotely immobile that’s outdoors is fair game.

This means your outdoor furniture, grill, camping equipment, trailers, etc. If it’s outside and sits still long enough, it’s a prime spot for a spongy moth egg sack. This also includes cars and vehicles.

When we move to a new area or go camping, we’re likely bringing an egg sack or two along with us. Shipping goods across the country can spread the moths too.

Do the Caterpillars Bite?

While the spongy moth caterpillar can’t bite, the fuzzy hairs can cause a rash or irritated skin. It’s recommended that you wear gloves when dealing with them.

Burlap Bands & Sticky Tape

During the hottest parts of the day, caterpillars will come down out of the leaf canopy to escape the heat. They will hide in the grass and cooler cracks and crevices of the bark until things cool off. Using burlap wraps around tree trunks, with a belt of sticky tape placed further down the trunk, you can capture and dispose of lots of spongy moths while they’re at their most destructive.

Start setting up burlap traps as soon as you see caterpillars emerge, and check and change the sticky tape as needed.

Even if you don’t use sticky tape, wrapping burlap around your tree and then going out to squash or drown your finds in the afternoon is also effective.

Pheromone Traps

When the munching stops and things go quiet, that’s the time to employ pheromone traps. Remember, the female moth emits pheromones to attract the male. You can use pheromone traps with sticky tape to attract and collect male moths, preventing them from finding a mate.

Naturally, this type of trap only works on adult male moths, but used in conjunction with burlap traps or biological treatments, it’s quite effective in disrupting next year’s infestation.

Destroying Egg Sacks

This might seem like a thankless task if it’s one of those years where you find them everywhere. Scraping egg masses off of trees and other places you find them is one of the best ways to prevent next year’s infestation and keep them from spreading.

I’ve found that a pocket knife works well to scrape them off of trees gently. Place the egg mass in a bucket of soapy water with a lid to kill the eggs.

Of course, this only applies to the ones low enough on the trees for you to reach. You may want to contact a local tree care or landscaping center to see what spraying options you have to protect your trees. Many offer chemical-free options these days, relying on biological controls such as bacteria and fungi.

One thing we can do to help stop the spread of the spongy moth is to look over vehicles, outdoor furniture, and accessories each fall and remove egg sacks. If you’re camping, don’t bring your own wood; check campers and other camping gear for egg sacks before heading out.

Biological Controls

Because of the damage they cause and the need to stop their spread, there is ongoing research on using fungi and bacteria for the biological control of spongy moths. While there have been some important findings, many of the most effective options are difficult to mass produce, so they aren’t readily available to consumers yet.  

Bacillus thuringiensis

Bacillus thuringiensis is a naturally occurring bacteria that only affects insects; it’s harmless to us and other animals. When the spongy month eats leaves sprayed with Bt, the bacteria make protein crystals that disrupt the insect’s digestive system, causing it to die before it can reproduce.

Unfortunately, Bt affects all caterpillars in an area, so native species are also killed, making spraying programs merely a trade-off rather than a perfect solution.

Bt is also an option for the home gardener, whether from a bottle or through a spray program offered by a local tree care provider.

Trichogramma wasps

These teeny-tiny parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside the developing eggs of spongy moth caterpillars. Instead of a spongy moth caterpillar hatching from the egg, an adult trichogramma wasp will emerge.

And what does the adult trichogramma eat? Pollen and nectar. Yup, you would be adding a tiny army of pollinators to your yard. Not too shabby.

The best part is they work equally well on cabbageworms, tomato hornworms, corn earworms, cutworms, armyworms, and imported cabbage worms.

You can purchase trichogramma eggs that come “glued” to cards you hang in your trees to release.

Spraying Programs in the United States & Canada

In areas of the northeastern United States and Canada, where spongy moth populations are heaviest, many states, provinces and municipalities have adopted spraying programs. In an effort to slow the spread of this invasive pest and to protect forested areas, Bacillus thuringiensis is sprayed early in the season, just before the eggs begin to hatch.

My sweetie lives right on the edge of stage game lands. We watched in late April as a crop duster pilot sprayed the forest with bt. It certainly didn’t help our trees.

Some municipalities may even offer discounted spraying if you sign up to have your yard sprayed while other forested areas are treated. The best place to start for spraying information in your area is through your county extension office.

Spongy moth infestations tend to be cyclical, lasting five to ten years.

They get worse each subsequent year until suddenly the population drops off, usually from a naturally occurring virus that shows up in very large populations of the moths (Nucleopolyhedrosis virus), which causes an entire population to crash. And then the cycle starts over again.

No matter how bad spongy moths are each year, you can save your foliage and some headaches by helping to stop their spread.

The post Dealing With Spongy Moth (Gypsy Moth) Caterpillar Infestations appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Attracting ladybugs to your garden is one way to maintain diversity and manage it organically. Organic gardening always involves recognizing that we are not alone in our gardens. Successful gardens are diverse ecosystems that teem with life.

And all of that life has its role to play in helping the system to thrive. 

Ladybugs are one creature that can help us, but what exactly are they? What do they do in our gardens? How can we attract them? Should we introduce them? And when we have them in our gardens, how can we encourage them to stay? Read on to find out.

What are Ladybugs?

Ladybugs, also called ladybirds, ladybird beetles, or lady beetles, are a range of small insects in the Coccinellidae family. Most members of this family are considered to be beneficial to your garden. However, there are some sub-family members that can cause problems for crops.

Identifying different ladybugs can be important. It can allow you to determine whether you’re looking at species native to your area or ones that have been introduced or are invasive.

It’s important to understand which ladybugs should be encouraged in your garden and which may pose more of a problem.

While ladybugs in the garden are generally a good thing, identifying different species can help you understand the ecology of the area and do your part to encourage good balance in the ecosystems.

How the Ladybug Got Its Name

Many people think of the ladybug as a red-colored creature with black spots. (A creature that often features in children’s books and children’s tales.)

The name Coccinellidae comes from the Latin word ‘coccineus’, which means ‘scarlet’. This led to an association with Mary (Our Lady) in the Christian world. (She was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early paintings.). Hence the ‘Lady’ in the name.

But ladybugs actually come in a wide range of colors. Often, they are red, orange or yellow, with small, black spots. But some have whitish spots on a brown background, some have stripes, and some are entirely black, brown or gray and have no spots at all.

It’s not always easy to recognize all the members of this family as being part of this family at all. However, the most common members of the ladybug family are easily identified.

The Benefits of Ladybugs in the Garden

Many ladybugs are hugely beneficial in your garden because they are a predatory species that eat common sap-sucking insect pests such as aphids and scale insects. They’re also the natural predators of a range of other pest species.

For example, Stethorus black ladybugs can pray on mites, like Tetranychus spider mites. They are also predators of the European corn borer (a moth that causes important crop losses in the US each year).

Larger ladybugs attack caterpillars and beetle larvae of various types. Some feed on insects or their eggs.

Different types of ladybugs have different favored prey. But almost all can help control pests and maintain a balance in your garden ecosystem.

Ladybugs also have other secondary food sources, such as nectar, and some also feed on mildew. As ladybugs come to eat from flowers, they also carry pollen from one flowering bloom to another. Unlike bees, ladybugs are not primarily looking for nectar, they will eat some, and pollination is a side effect as they go about their business.

In their turn, ladybugs are also a good source of food for other beneficial creatures in your garden. The main predator of ladybugs is usually birds. But frogs, wasps, spiders and dragonflies may also make a meal of these insects.

Are All Ladybugs Good For Gardens?

While ladybugs are generally a boon for gardens, it’s important to remember there are certain ladybugs that will not be as beneficial.

The Mexican bean beetle, for example, is part of the ladybug family but is a common and destructive agricultural pest.

Some others may be partly welcome – but partly harmful.

For example, the Harmonia axyridis (the Harlequin ladybird) is now the most common species in the US. But this is an introduced species. It was introduced from Asia to North America in 1916 to control aphids. This type of ladybug now outcompetes native species.

It has since spread through much of Western Europe and reached the UK in 2004. This species has also spread to parts of Africa. In some regions, it has become a pest and gives cause for some ecological concern.

Coccinella septempunctata, the seven-spot ladybird, or seven-spotted ladybug, is the most common ladybird in Europe. In the UK, there are fears that the seven-spot ladybird is being outcompeted for food by the harlequin ladybird.

In the US, this European ladybird has been repeatedly introduced as a biological control. It has been designated the official state insect of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio and Tennessee. But there are some ecological concerns surrounding the fact that this species has outcompeted many native species, including other members of the Coccinella family.

What is a great native species in one area can be invasive and a ‘pest’ in another. So it’s always important to think about your geographical location when determining which ladybugs are good in your garden.

How To Attract Wild Ladybugs To Your Garden

Though there are a few exceptions (like the Mexican bean beetle), encouraging native ladybugs is almost always beneficial in your garden. And the more different ladybugs you can encourage, the better.

The first thing to remember when you want to protect native biodiversity is it’s important to garden organically. Chemical controls for pests or weeds can harm all insect life (and other wildlife) in your garden.

When trying to attract predatory insects like ladybugs to your garden, it’s always best to begin by thinking about where you live.

Which ladybugs and other insects are already present in your area? The more you can learn about local wildlife and ecology, the better. A great resource for learning which ladybugs are native to your region is your local agriculture cooperative extension office.

It’s also important to think about the insects themselves. Which will be most effective in balancing the local ecosystem and helping you deal with particular pest species? Which ladybugs will help maintain a diverse and resilient ecosystem in the short-term and long-term?

To attract ladybugs to your garden, you should:

• Not entirely eliminate the pest species they prey on. (It may seem counterintuitive. But attracting a certain number of pest species can actually make it easier to garden organically over time. Ladybugs and other predatory insects will be drawn to a garden with aphids and other pests to feed on. They will then be present to feed on them and help make sure their numbers do not get out of control.)
• Create wilder and more natural corners in your garden where wildlife can flourish undisturbed.
• Sow and grow a wide range of plants to attract ladybug prey and ladybugs.
• Create structures such as ladybug feeders or ladybug hibernation ‘hotels’.

Planting For Ladybugs

There is a wide range of plants you should sow and grow to attract ladybugs to your garden. The plants you should choose can be broadly divided into the following categories:

• Good aphid attractants (and plants that attract other ladybug prey).
• Plants that are good places for ladybugs to lay their eggs and make a good habitat for them to live on.
• Plants that provide nectar as a dietary supplement for ladybugs.

Some plants will fit all three of these criteria, while others may provide some of what a ladybug needs and wants. Broadly speaking, it is best to introduce a good range of plants (including plenty of native plants) with as much variety as possible. 

Some great plants for ladybugs include:

Herbs such as:

• dill
• fennel
• parsley
• cilantro
• mint
• chives (and other alliums)
• tansy
• yarrow
• angelica
• caraway

Flowers such as:

• dandelions
• nasturtiums
• calendula
• marigolds
• Queen Anne’s lace
• alyssum
• cosmos
• statice
• butterfly weed
• bugleweed

Of course, these are just a few examples of the hundreds of plants that will attract and aid ladybugs in your garden. 

Remember, it’s important to choose the right plants for the right places and to think about which plants will be best where you live. 

Creating a Ladybug Feeder

Planting for ladybugs and attracting their natural prey is the best way to encourage them into your garden and keep them there. But to help out ladybugs when natural food sources are scarce, you could also consider creating a ladybug feeder.

Ladybug Feeder @ apartmenttherapy.com.

Creating a Ladybug Hibernation Zone

Another thing to think about when making your garden a ladybug-friendly zone is where your ladybugs will be able to rest up for the winter. Most ladybugs overwinter as adults. When they go into diapause, they are sluggish and mostly inactive. 

They commonly excrete a chemical that attracts other ladybugs to congregate close by. So if you can encourage a few ladybugs to stay in your garden over winter, you may well find that this attracts more that will emerge come spring. 

Ladybugs need a moist and sheltered environment that will remain frost-free and ideally above around 55 degrees F. They seek out somewhere which offers a degree of protection against predators. 

One good way to encourage overwintering ladybugs in your garden is to leave brush and hollow-stemmed dead plant matter in place so they have a place to hide. 

But you can also consider making a ladybug house for these beneficial insects to use.

How To Build a Ladybug House @ wikihow.com.

Making a Ladybird Hotel for Your Garden @ wikihow.com.

Make a Simple Bug or Ladybird Home @ schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk.

Whether or not a ladybug house will be beneficial will depend on where you live and the ladybug species that are found in your area. 

Introducing Ladybugs To Your Garden

If you create a thriving ecosystem with plenty of pests species to prey on and plenty of diverse plant life, it is likely that ladybugs will arrive on their own. But in certain circumstances, the surrounding ecosystem may have been degraded to the point that wild ladybugs in the area are in short supply. In these cases, it may be a good idea to introduce ladybugs to your garden.

Before you decide to introduce ladybugs to your garden, however, think very carefully. It’s always best to try to encourage wild ladybugs to arrive. It is only where such measures have not been successful that you should even consider introductions.

Introducing ladybugs to your garden can also be problematic in a range of other ways. The choices you make can cause more harm than good. So it is very important to make the right decisions.

Choose Native Species

The first thing to get right is the particular ladybug species you choose. Of course, you should always choose a ladybug that is native to your area. Introducing the Harmonia axyridis or European ladybug is common in the US. Unfortunately, as described above, these are non-native. They can cause ecological harm by outcompeting native species.

Avoid Wild-Harvested Ladybugs

Another thing to be aware of is that most of the ladybugs sold in the US are wild harvested. Hippodamia convergens and Harmonia axyridis are all wild harvested, and the only commercially reared ‘red’ ladybugs usually available for home gardeners are Adalia bipunctata and Coleomegilla maculata. 

Research has shown that 3–15% of ladybird beetles harvested in the wild carry the internal parasite Dinocampus coccinellae. The same study found many of the harvested beetles to be infected with Microsporidia. This shortens the lifespan of ladybugs and reduces the number of eggs they lay. Introducing ladybugs that are infected could introduce pathogens to wild populations in your area.

To avoid supporting the sale of ladybugs collected in the wild, it is important to choose ‘farmed’ ladybugs from a specialist supplier. You can get tubes of pink spotted ladybug (Coleomegilla maculata) larvae from Insect Lore, for example. 

(Remember, ladybugs are not the only predatory insect to consider for biological control. You could also, for example, consider introducing green lacewings for pest control. You can get these from Beneficial Insectary.)

Introduce Larvae, Not Adult Ladybugs

Introducing ladybugs at the larval stage is generally more effective than introducing adult ladybugs during diapause. There are no guarantees that ladybugs introduced as adults will stay on the plants you want them to. Nor is there any guarantee that they will feed on the pests you wish them to.

Many gardeners who introduce ladybugs forget to do the groundwork to ensure that the ladybugs will want to stay. Remember, if your garden fails to attract wild ladybugs, it will likely not be a good environment for introduced ladybugs either.

Introducing native ladybugs may be a solution in certain very limited cases. But generally speaking, it is best to take a more holistic view. You should not think of introducing any species as a ‘quick fix’ but should generally work more broadly to encourage ladybugs (and a range of other beneficial, predatory insects) to your garden. 

Read Next:

How To Release Ladybugs Into Your Garden (& Why You Should)

The post How To Attract Wild Ladybugs To Your Backyard & Why You Need To appeared first on Rural Sprout.

As any seasoned weed-puller knows, keeping on top of weedy growth in the lawn and garden is a never-ending grind. Some weeds are easy, yank them up once and they’re gone. Others are more stubborn, requiring a cardboard smothering to be rid of them for good.  

You ain’t seen nothing until you’ve gone toe-to-toe with Japanese knotweed.

For four years, I fought the good fight against Japanese knotweed…and lost. The best I could do was beat it back and minimize its presence in my old backyard.

I pulled the young sprouts as soon as they popped up – randomly and prolifically – in the grass, along the fence, underneath the deck stairs, and in between my rows of tomatoes. Older shoots emerge in clumps and I spent untold hours digging out the knotty masses of roots – easier said than done, as these babies are entrenched.

I used excessive amounts of boiling water to drench their root systems and growing sites.

Nevertheless, Japanese knotweed persisted.

Japanese knotweed is truly the most tenacious of weeds. You can slow it down, you can weaken it, you can curb its spread. But get rid of it forever? Next to impossible.

Japanese Knotweed – the Hardy Plant with Staying Power

Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the buckwheat family. In its native range of eastern Asia, it is a ruderal species that’s one of the first plants to grow after a major land disturbance. In Japan, it springs up on lava fields and between rock fragments left at the base of mountainous slopes after a volcanic eruption.

The side of a volcano is probably one of the most hostile places for a plant to be. There it will need to stand up to landslides and flooding, having its foliage repeatedly covered in volcanic ash, and be capable of thriving in the poorest quality soils under droughty conditions. Because of these adaptations, Japanese knotweed is an absolute beast when it grows in much more favorable settings.

In its homeland, it’s kept in check by other vigorous growers like bamboo and silvergrass that compete for space. It also has its very own specialized jumping lice predator – the Japanese knotweed psyllid – that defoliates the plant and depletes its energy for growth and rooting.

Outside of the checks and balances of its native habitat, Japanese knotweed ranks as one of the most invasive species in the world.

Bringing Japanese knotweed to Europe, what could possibly go wrong?

We have one person to blame for the scourge of Japanese knotweed: Phillip Franz von Siebold, a German physician, botanist, and explorer.

Arriving in Japan in 1823, von Siebold collected and shipped around 2,000 plant species to Europe over his 8-year stay. To be fair to ol’ Phillip Franz, he sent off many specimens still prized in gardens today, including maple and cherry blossom trees, hosta, hydrangea, wisteria, iris, clematis, and peony.

Little did he know that when he scooped up a sample of Japanese knotweed from Mount Unzen in Nagasaki Prefecture, he would be unleashing the ire of gardeners across multiple generations, the world over.

Japanese knotweed became commercially available in Europe in 1848 after receiving a gold medal for the “most interesting new ornamental plant” by the Society of Agriculture & Horticulture at Utrecht. Boasting its great vigor, beauty, and medicinal uses, it was marketed as a windbreak, nourishing animal fodder, and fixer of eroding soil. An exotic plant with such traits was very appealing to the Victorian gardener, fetching 20 times the price as wisteria.

The first rumblings that Japanese knotweed was nothing but trouble came in 1899, when growers began noting its weediness and spread. By the time the 1930s rolled around, it was given the name “Hancock’s Curse” after a plant proprietor in Britain.

But the genie was well out of the bottle at that point. Japanese knotweed had escaped cultivation and gone on to establish itself throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, most of Canada, and in 42 of 50 US States.

How Japanese Knotweed is the Perfect Invader

The evolutionary training that Japanese knotweed received on the volcanic plains has ensured this plant is really tough to kill.

Though it grows most vigorously in full sun, it can withstand deep shade as well. It has no issue flourishing in a variety of soils, and it seems the poorer the better. Preferring wetlands and other moist milieus, Japanese knotweed isn’t at all phased by acidity, salinity, or soils contaminated with heavy metals and pollutants. It’s drought and heat resistant too, and the roots can survive temperatures as low as -31°F (-35°C).

Japanese knotweed forms thick leafy stands, growing as much as 3 inches each day and reaching up to 10 feet in height by midsummer. It grows so fast and dense that it outcompetes native plants in the wilderness, with fewer invertebrates, amphibians, birds, and mammals found in places that Japanese knotweed has colonized.

If it didn’t grow so aggressively, it would indeed be a handsome shrub. The main stalk looks similar to bamboo, hollow and smooth, about one inch in diameter, and is mostly green with flecks of purple. The leaves are oval-shaped with pointed tips and run alternately down red-tinged stems that trail gracefully from the stalk.

Small white flowers bloom in panicles in July or August, and resemble tiny versions of astilbe. As a dioecious plant, it requires male and female flowers to produce viable seed. Much of the Japanese knotweed present in North America is believed to be sterile clones – however, the flowers can be pollinated by related invasive plants, like giant knotweed and bohemian knotweed.

The ultra-fast growth up top is just a fraction of what’s going on beneath the surface.

The primary way that Japanese knotweed spreads is through its massive network of rhizomes. The underground root system accounts for 2/3 of the plant’s total mass.

The woody roots, dark brown on the outside and bright orange on the inside, are ridiculously hardy. Growing through asphalt and concrete like butter, the roots can tunnel 6 feet deep and reach 65 feet or more in length. Root fragments as small as 1 cm can spawn a whole new plant in only 6 days.  

Japanese knotweed dies back each fall, leaving dead stalks standing over winter. Where one stalk overwinters, numerous new shoots will emerge from the same spot in spring. As the parent plant grows, it sends out a multitude of underground runners that bear new shoots. The juvenile sprouts look a little like asparagus, purplish and green, and push up basically anywhere and everywhere.

Controlling Japanese Knotweed – the 5 Year Plan

To truly eradicate Japanese knotweed, you would need to remove the entirety of its sprawling and interconnected root system. This is no small feat, as leaving behind a bit of root slightly larger than a quarter-inch is enough to reverse any progress you’ve made.

So far, there’s only one proven method to quickly and effectively eliminate the root mass: full-scale excavation. This involves digging pits 10 feet deep with heavy machinery and disposing of the tainted soil like it’s hazardous waste. Not exactly doable in most suburban backyards!

Rather than shooting for total annihilation, your efforts to manage Japanese knotweed should be slow and steady.

A consistent combination of these control measures will deplete the rhizomes over time, leaving them with less energy to sprout new shoots. Only do them once, though, and Japanese knotweed will explode with renewed purpose. It’ll take a commitment of at least 5 years – and maybe up to 10 for large and well-established populations.

With Japanese knotweed, it can feel like you’re playing whack-a-mole. Focus your efforts first on containment. Remove the satellite sprouts to prevent spread before taking on the more mature plants.

Cutting

Cutting down plants once will only make them stronger. But consistently chopping down any and all Japanese knotweed growth you see will, ever so slowly, weaken the rhizomes below.

It’s not an effective method on its own, but keeping sprouts and shoots cut down to ground level can be a good part of your overall Japanese knotweed strategy.

Removing the above ground growth won’t touch the roots, but it will reduce the plant’s energy reserves. Freshly snipped plants will allocate their resources towards regrowth instead of spread. When the plant sprouts again (and it will), its growth will be stunted to 3 or 4 feet.

Every time you cut back Japanese knotweed, you’re limiting the plant’s potential. It will take years of repeated cuttings to make a difference, which is why it’s so important to take a multi-pronged approach.

Digging

Japanese knotweed is always encroaching. When it’s happy, it sends out runners that radiate out from the parent plant like spokes on a wheel. Every new sprout has the potential to do the same – so you can just imagine the exponential growth!

The newest clones, freshly risen from the soil for the first time, have small rhizomes that are the easiest to remove. These young roots will be connected to slightly older and larger rhizomes, which in turn are connected to even larger ones. You can follow the runners, digging up root clumps as you go.

Take extra care when digging up the roots. Keep the rhizomes whole as much as possible and leave no bits of root behind.

When the roots go too deep into the soil, sever the connecting runner cleanly with loppers. At this point, I would dump boiling hot water into the hole for good measure. This extra step seemed to help stop the rhizomes from quickly rebounding with fresh growth.

Tarping

The older the roots of Japanese knotweed, the thicker and woodier they become. Almost like tree roots, they don’t come up readily. When your Japanese knotweed has been there awhile, or has formed dense clusters of plants, soil solarization is a more practical option than digging.

Tarping over the infested sites will simultaneously block out sunlight and cook the root system. It works best in sunny locations so the soil will heat up enough to kill the rhizomes.

Start tarping Japanese knotweed in late spring. Cut all the stalks down to the soil line and cover the growing site with a dark-colored, heavy-duty tarp. The cover should be somewhat larger than the colony itself to prevent shoots from growing laterally to find the light.

Japanese knotweed sprouts have been known to punch through a tarp so make sure you lay the cover over the soil loosely. Leaving an inch or two of slack, weigh down the corners and edges with rocks or tent pegs to stop the tarp from blowing away.

For solarization to work against Japanese knotweed, you’ll need to leave the tarp in place for at least 3 growing seasons. As you wait, keep monitoring the site and remove any shoots that poke out past the edges. Check for tears in the sheet and patch them up right away so that the roots don’t gain any benefit from light and air flow.

Remediating the Soil

Solarizing Japanese knotweed growing sites for three years will have the unfortunate side effect of destroying all the beneficial microbes in the soil too. And as if this plant wasn’t overpowered enough, it exudes chemicals from its roots that makes the soil less hospitable to other plant life.

Once an area has been cleared of Japanese knotweed, you’ll need to fix the soil and make it into a place where plants want to be.

Re-introduce good soil microbiota by deeply mulching the site. Use organic matter like leaf mold or wood chips to give the bacteria and fungi the fuel they need to grow and multiply.

It’s also a good idea to heavily replant the area to suppress Japanese knotweed (and other undesirable weeds) from sprouting. Crowd the space with native plants that have thick, deep, and dense roots. Wildflowers like black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower, sunchoke, goldenrod, and butterfly weed are lovely, hardy plants with large and robust root systems.

Safely Disposing Japanese Knotweed

As you cut and dig away at the problem of Japanese knotweed, you’ll collect heaps of leafy branches, stems, and rhizomes. Don’t compost any part of Japanese knotweed, ever.

Treat it like the biohazard it is by placing all plant materials in thick black plastic bags. Seal the bags up tightly and leave them in full sun for 2 weeks. When the contents are thoroughly dried, you can burn them or put the bags out with the trash.

Accepting that Japanese Knotweed is Here to Stay

Japanese knotweed is so vigorous and abundant that it’s pretty well unmatched in the weed department. The plant’s drive to survive is almost admirable, really.

I eventually came around to the idea that I would need to learn to live alongside my patch of Japanese knotweed. Despite all the pulling, cutting, and digging, it always came back. My efforts to control it weren’t completely in vain though. With consistency and persistence, its occupancy of my growing spaces became less and less over time

There is one silver lining with Japanese knotweed – it’s free food.

The juvenile sprouts, the hollows stalks, and the green leaves are all totally edible. Nutritious, even, since the plant is quite rich in resveratrol and other antioxidants.

Japanese knotweed has tartness similar to rhubarb, imparting a lemony flavor to food and drink. The youngest shoots that pop up in early spring are the most tender. Older stalks, taller than a foot, have a tougher outer skin that can be scraped off with a peeler. Either young or old, Japanese knotweed can be enjoyed raw, sautéed, grilled, pickled, and sweetened.

So when you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em:

• Japanese knotweed hummus
• Japanese knotweed salsa verde
• Japanese knotweed pickles
• Japanese knotweed syrup
• Japanese knotweed jelly
• Sweetened Japanese knotweed puree
• Japanese knotweed sorbet
• Japanese knotweed quiche
• Sour Japanese knotweed soup
• Japanese knotweed risotto
• Knotweed, cucumber & avocado gazpacho
• Japanese knotweed pie
• Strawberry knotweed crisp
• Apple knotweed fruit leather
• Japanese knotweed wine

The post How To Control Japanese Knotweed (& Delicious Ways To Eat It) appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Earthworms are among the most beloved residents in the home garden.

Tireless in their quest to tunnel, feed, and poop, worms are amazing for aerating the soil, breaking down organic matter, and dispersing nutrients via their castings.

Nightcrawlers and red wigglers are two of the worms you’re most like to see burrowing through the dirt, working over your compost, and processing your leaf mold.

It’s way too easy to take our beneficial backyard worms for granted. All worms all sort of look the same – ranging from pinkish to brownish to reddish in color, with long segmented bodies. We see them and assume they’re doing good things for the soil.

But nowadays, that’s not always the case.

This is a PSA for all gardening enthusiasts – there’s a family of worms you need to watch out for: the invasive jumping worm.

The jumping worm has been steadily making its way across North America. First observed here in 1866, the spread of Asian jumping worms has increased rapidly the last couple years.

Initially a scourge in the Northeast and Midwest, now they’ve been spotted in at least 34 states. Jumping worms have been found as far south as Florida and west as Oregon.

Jumping worms are no friend to the gardener, and certainly not the ecosystem at large. Instead of improving soil structure and fertility like our good guy earthworms do, jumping worms degrade and damage topsoil to such an extent that plants fail to thrive.

What are Jumping Worms?

There’s three species in the Megascolecidae worm family you need to watch out for, Amynthas agrestis, Amynthas tokioensis, and Metaphire hilgendorfi.

Jumping worms are sometimes referred to as crazy worms or snake worms. On the surface, they look like any old worm. But as soon as they are disturbed, all of them share the same hard-to-miss trait.

Instead of inching forward like a common earthworm would, jumping worms wag their bodies back and forth like a snake.

Pick up an earthworm and it’ll more or less hang there like a wet noodle. Jumping worms, on the other hand, will flail and thrash about quite violently when handled:

Watching how your worms move is the easiest way to identify jumping worms, but there are other tells.

Jumping worms are a darker grayish brown and become iridescent in the sunlight. Your friendly backyard earthworm is typically much paler and pinkish by contrast.

Every worm has a raised band around their bodies – the clitellum – that holds the egg cocoons. In common earthworms, the clitellum is the same color as the rest of the worm, is swollen on one side, and sits on the body like a saddle.

In jumping worms, the band fully encircles the body and is situated closer to the head. It will turn white, or a very light shade, once the worm reaches adulthood.

Why are Jumping Worms a Huge Problem?

Jumping worms have been around North America for more than 100 years, but it’s only recently that they have begun to spread so far and wide. The reasons for the rapid rise of the jumping worm isn’t fully understood. It’s believed that warmer winters in the North – fueled by climate change – has made it easier for the worms to colonize new areas.

Once jumping worms come to inhabit home gardens, greenhouses, and compost heaps, they can increase their populations so quickly that they crowd out and displace beneficial worms.

Jumping worms don’t need a mate and reproduce asexually, each birthing two or more generations per season. Though the adults will die off after the first hard frost, the egg cocoons they leave behind will overwinter and hatch when soil temperatures rise to 50°F (10°C). It only takes about 60 days for baby jumping worms to reach maturity and start reproducing.

This is a serious problem since jumping worms – like all earthworms – are keystone species that have an enormous influence over the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil.

Like little saboteurs, jumping worms will turn your rich and beautiful soil into dry and gravelly dirt stripped of its nutrients.

Their quick movements make it so jumping worms move faster and eat more than your typical garden earthworm. They devour large amounts of organic matter, leaving behind dark pellet-like castings that resemble ground beef or spent coffee grounds.

Jumping worms live in the upper layer of soil, no more than 4-inches below the surface. And so their poop, although nutrient-rich, sits on top of the soil, well out of reach of plant roots. As soon as it rains, the fertile castings are washed away.

Since they are active just below the soil line, jumping worms create very loose beds that make it tougher for plant roots to become established. Jumping worms have also been known to nibble on the roots of seedlings and young plants.

As more organic matter is removed (and not recycled), garden beds will become less favorable places for microbes, invertebrates, and insects to inhabit. Without these helpful allies, the soil will dry out and erode faster.

Although jumping worms don’t directly damage plants, they make it so annuals, perennials, and grasses will really struggle to survive, let alone flourish.

Checking for Jumping Worms – the Mustard Pour

Don’t wait for a chance encounter to properly identify the worms in your garden. If you suspect you might have jumping worms, use the mustard pour test and get them to come to you.

Mark off a one foot square area you’d like to test. Blend together 1/3 of a cup of ground hot yellow mustard with 1 gallon of water. Pour half of this mixture very slowly over the area. Wait several minutes, and then pour out the rest.

All the worms in the vicinity will rise up to the surface, making it so much easier to observe and identify them. Although it’s highly irritating, mustard isn’t deadly to worms and it won’t harm your plants.

What to Do If You Have Jumping Worms

When one of your greatest joys is nurturing life in the garden, it can be devastating to discover that your landscape has been infiltrated with soil-destroying jumping worms.

You are not alone!

Jumping worms can take a heavy toll. Many gardeners afflicted by them have reported feelings of sadness, anger, and panic. In one survey, half of respondents said that they had dreamed about jumping worms and 1 in 5 reported crying about them. The University of Minnesota has even published emotional support guidance for those affected by jumping worms.

Part of the grief comes from the difficulty in removing them from the landscape.

Jumping worms are a relatively new invasive species. Although research on biological and chemical controls is ongoing, so far there’s no way to fully eradicate them once they are established in a location.

Yep, jumping worms are nightmare fuel for gardeners. Though they are challenging to contend with, to say the least, it’s not impossible to manage jumping worms so you can still grow your gorgeous plants.

Here are a few empowering steps you can take to reduce jumping worm numbers and minimize the damage they wreak:

Report it

First things first – keep a cool head. Digging and moving soil around will only make it easier for jumping worms to spread in other areas of your garden.

Determine where they are in your yard and write down the exact locations of your sightings. Take photos and notes of your observations. It can be helpful to keep an ongoing record of any changes you see.

Report your findings to EDDMapS and iNaturalist as well as local and state governments.

Spread awareness about jumping worms by talking to your neighbors, family, and friends so others will know to be on the lookout for these insidious soil dwellers.  

Remove jumping worms by hand

Admittedly, plucking out worms that move like crazy snakes when you touch them is about as unappealing as it sounds.

But unless you have a flock of chickens to unleash on them, manually removing jumping worms by hand is one of the more effective ways to reduce their populations. It eliminates adults and juveniles – as well as any eggs they would have produced – from the landscape.

You can make this job a little easier by baiting the jumping worms with the mustard pour.

Dump collected jumping worms into a bucket of soapy water, vinegar, or rubbing alcohol to kill them.  

Solarize your soil

Although hand picking will curtail jumping worm numbers, it doesn’t deal with the tiny egg cocoons – each about the size of a poppy seed – that have already been deposited in the soil.

Research has shown that jumping worm adults and cocoons will not survive in temperatures over 104°F (40°C), maintained over 3 days.

Solarizing your soil, mulch, or compost can be an effective control for jumping worm eggs. Sun-powered heating works best when only a few inches of soil, evenly spread and moistened, is placed inside clear plastic bags or tubs.

For larger amounts of soil, you can make a solarization package. Lay out a large plastic sheet, 10 to 15 feet in length, in a sunny location. Add the worm-infested soil to the center of the sheet, in an even layer, 6 to 8 inches deep. Fold over the sides of the sheet so the soil is wrapped up tightly and is completely enclosed.

Check the temperature often to make sure the soil is getting hot enough and that it holds the heat for at least 3 days.

For soil solarization to work against jumping worms, it must be kept separate and contained. Laying a sheet over the ground soil doesn’t appear to be as effective. It might kill the eggs, but adult worms will simply move away from the heat.

Apply organic fertilizers

The newness of jumping worms – and the lack of scientifically-proven management options – means that it’s still very much the Wild West out there.

As we wait for research to roll in, citizen science projects have been invaluable for providing insight on what works (and what doesn’t) to reduce jumping worm populations.

In 2020 and 2021, volunteers in Minnesota tested out various anti-jumping worm strategies. They tested pine needle mulches (no change), cinnamon powder (no change), and even tried training wildlife to eat them (mixed results).

According to their findings, what worked best were these saponin-rich organic fertilizers:

Alfalfa pellets scattered over the soil in spring, summer, and fall had significant jumping worm reductions compared to the previous year.

Black tea leaves from spent teabags were effective against worms when spread on soil in spring and throughout summer. One volunteer reported having no worms at all by August after diligently applying spent tea leaves over the course of the growing season.

Tea seed meal applied in late spring and again in summer offers another potential jumping worm management strategy. The tea seed draws them up to the surface where they were observed to dry up and die by the thousands.

Saponins very well might be the key for fighting jumping worms. Try conducting your own field experiments by growing some of these saponin-rich plants.

Tips for Preventing a Jumping Worms Invasion

You can breathe a mighty sigh of relief if you haven’t seen these erratic creepy crawlies or spotted their telltale castings on top of your soil. Preventing them from infesting your landscape is so much easier to do than dealing with them once they’re already there.

Jumping worms frequently spread to new areas through soil, mulch, compost, and potted plants contaminated with the worms or their egg cocoons. Jumping worm eggs can hitch a ride on the soles of shoes, in tire treads, and on dirty tools and equipment.

Your safest bet for preventing jumping worms is to avoid introducing materials from outside sources to your yard. That means making your own compost, garden mulch, and potting soils. If you must buy, only purchase from sources you trust. Even so, you still might want to solarize any soil or mulch before spreading it around.

Make sure landscaping contractors that come to your property are keeping their tools and machinery clean and free of soil and plant debris.

When purchasing or swapping plants, remove the potting soil and plant them up bare root.

Now that you know what you’re looking for, inspect your garden for jumping worms regularly. Leaf litter, compost heaps, and wood chip mulch are some of their favorite hangouts.

When you do yard work, wear only one pair of shoes that never leave your property.

Stopping the Spread of Worms in Our Forests

It might come as a shock that the good worms in our gardens – including our dear nightcrawlers and red wigglers – aren’t native species either, and are technically invasive too.

There are parts of North America – the Northeast US, the upper Midwest, and pretty much all of Canada – where there are no native earthworms at all.

Any worms that existed in these regions were killed off during the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago. When the ice sheets receded, the flora and fauna returned – but not the earthworm.

Without earthworms to recycle dropped leaves and tunnel through the soil, foliage accumulated in a dense and thick layer along the forest floor. And for thousands of years, life in broadleaf forests adapted to a world absent of worms. The forest detritus – or duff – became important for the survival of many creatures.

The reintroduction of earthworms has had a huge impact on temperate forests. Worms are capable of completely denuding the forest duff and dramatically altering the ecosystem of wooded areas. Studies have shown population declines in native plants, insects, salamanders, and ground-nesting birds because of earthworms, which has cascading effects on fragile and complex food webs.

Although nightcrawlers and red wigglers are still very much helpful and beneficial in our cultivated gardens, they are terrible in forest habitats. And jumping worms are even worse.

So here’s what you can do to stymie the spread of all earthworms in our forests:

• Never dump unused fishing worm bait in natural areas.
• Before heading into the woods on a hike, wash your shoes; wash them again when you return home.
• Stay on hiking trails and always keep pets on a leash.
• Never dump garden waste, leaves, or soil in the wilderness.

The post Dealing With Invasive Jumping Worms – A Gardener’s Worst Nightmare appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Earwigs are abundant in the moist and dark nooks of the garden.

Moving a flower pot or overturning a stone can be a startling reminder of their presence, revealing dozens of them hiding out in the cool darkness. When their cover is disturbed, earwigs will quickly disperse in every direction to seek out a new shadowy cavern.

The thing is, earwigs are mostly misunderstood.

The common name comes from the Old English ēarwicga which literally translates to “ear insect” – all based on the superstition that earwigs will crawl into ears and burrow deep into our brains to lay eggs. Although this old wives’ tale has been totally debunked, the name stuck.

It doesn’t help that earwigs have a ferocious look, with a prominent pair of pincers at the rear. They seem to slither about when they move with their flat, elongated bodies on six short legs. Some species emit a foul-smelling yellow liquid when they feel threatened.

In other words, earwigs ain’t cute.

Despite all of this, earwigs are harmless to humans, but our relationship with them is a bit of a mixed bag. Being both heroes and villains in the garden, sometimes they are fierce warriors that defend our crops from harm, and at other times they are the ones wreaking all the havoc.

About Earwigs

There are roughly 25 species of earwigs that roam throughout North America, but the one you’re most likely to encounter in the garden is Forficula auricularia, the European earwig.

No matter the species, all earwigs have a pair of pincers at the rear, which makes them some of the easiest insects to identify. The forceps-like appendages (technically cerci) are curved in males and straight in females. These close together to grasp and are used in self-defense and to grab and hold prey.

As intimidating as the cerci look, getting pinched by an earwig doesn’t hurt, and they won’t go out of their way to attack humans.

Earwigs are most active at night and spend their days hiding in dark, cool, and moist places – under dead leaves, mulch or loose soil, in the dense growth of vines and weeds, beneath logs, bricks, and sometimes inside damaged fruit.

Earwigs mate in fall and overwinter in specially constructed nests about one inch underground. Males and females will spend the winter together until early spring, when the female will drive the male out of the nest and then lay eggs.

Female earwigs are among the few non-social insects that care for their young. She will guard and protect the eggs from predators and eat any mold or fungi that grow on them. After about a week, the eggs hatch, and she will keep the nymphs fed and protected until they’ve had their second molt.

Nymphs mature into full-fledged adults by early July and will be living their best life in the garden ecosystem until autumn.

Earwigs – The Pest with Benefits

As scavengers, recyclers, and predators, earwigs are opportunistic omnivores with very hearty appetites.

Under the cover of night, they feed on a wide variety of dead and living things.

Like ants, earwigs help keep the ecosystem clean by breaking down organic matter and returning nutrients to the soil. In fact, earwigs in your compost pile are a great thing for speeding up the decomposition process.

While earwigs will content themselves with dead, damaged, and decaying plant life – which is the main staple in their diet – they will take a helping of healthy plant tissue with equal relish.

They enjoy the soft growth of tender seedlings and young shoots, leaving behind plants missing all or most of their leaves.  In older plants, the leaves will have ragged-shaped holes and chewing around the edges whenever earwigs are at work.

Earwigs are also fond of soft fruits like strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, apricots, peaches, and other stone fruit. When nibbled on by earwigs, the fruits will have gouges in the flesh that tunnel deep inside. Corn is another prized food, and earwigs will feed on the silks, disrupting pollination and leading to poor kernel development.

The ornamental garden isn’t safe from the earwig’s ravenous cravings either, and they will chew into the buds, petals, and foliage of zinnias, dahlias, marigolds, hostas, and butterfly bush.

When earwigs aren’t eating leaves, flowers, or fruit, they are off hunting other insects. Those pinchers are useful for capturing all sorts of pests – especially aphids, scale insects, whiteflies, mites, spiders, caterpillars, and other soft-bodied bugs. Earwigs will also chow down on all manner of insect eggs too, helping to keep the overall pest population low. 

6 Ways to Manage Earwigs in the Garden

As you can see, earwigs don’t fit neatly into the good guy or bad guy box.

Usually, earwigs aren’t a significant threat in the home garden. Sure, they will gobble up seedlings and cause unsightly holes in flowers, leaves, and fruit, but they don’t spread disease and rarely kill plants outright.

And they do eat plenty of garden pests that would do more harm to your beloved cultivars without earwigs standing in their way.

You can strike the right balance with earwigs by protecting your plants from harm while also reaping the benefits of biological pest control and improved organic matter recycling.

Here’s how:

1. Clean Up the Garden

An important first step in limiting the number of earwigs hanging around your property is to remove their potential hiding spots.

Move piles of leaves, wood, brush and grass clippings far away from vegetable and flower gardens.

Place risers under flower pots and containers to lift them up and keep the ground beneath them dry.

Pull up weeds and dense ground covers like ivy that creep too close to your prized plants.

Organic mulches can also harbor earwigs. When earwig populations are particularly bad, you might need to thin it or take it out entirely.

2. Use Row Covers in Spring

There are few things more disheartening than seedlings that are here one day and gone the next.

Seedlings are fragile little things, but they can be protected with lightweight row covers in spring until they are strong enough to withstand a little nibbling.

The white, gauzy fabric lets in air, water, and 80% to 90% of sunlight but blocks out several garden invaders – earwigs, as well as caterpillars, aphids, thrips, Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, flea beetles, root maggot flies, and larger critters like birds, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, and deer.

Floating row covers are laid directly over crops, leaving enough slack in the material so it can expand as plants grow. Or the cloth can be raised up and supported with hoops fashioned from a flexible wire.

To be effective as an insect barrier in either setup, the edges of the row cover must be buried completely. Dumping shovelfuls of soil around the perimeter of the fabric to tamp it down will ensure the cover is easy to remove when you need to weed.

Row covers are taken off for the season when insect-pollinated plants start to bloom.

By this point, your plants should be big and strong. Having healthy, well-established, and mature plants is truly the best defense against grazing garden pests of any kind.

3. Safeguard Your Fruit

Berries and drupes (stone fruits) are the earwig’s favorite fruity snacks. You’ll know earwigs are the culprits by the deep tunnels they drill inside so they can get at the softer flesh.

Though earwigs damage and deform the fruit, it doesn’t make the fruit inedible. To save the harvest, cut away the holes made by earwigs and keep the rest.

To deter earwigs from your fruit trees and shrubs, remove nearby hiding places and sheltering spots. Prune away suckers growing at the base of trunks and keep the site clear of all weeds and brush.

Pruning fruit trees and thinning the fruit can go a long way toward avoiding an all-out earwig infestation. Be quick about harvesting and pick the fruit as soon as it’s ripe.

If earwigs are a recurring issue, sticky bands offer good control against them and other crawling, canopy-dwelling pests. Sold at most garden centers, sticky bands are coated in grease or non-drying glue on one side. The bands are wrapped, sticky side out, around the tree trunk about 4 feet off the ground. The greasy substance will act as a physical barrier that earwigs, caterpillars, aphids, weevils, and gypsy moths can’t cross.

4. Encourage the Earwig’s Natural Predators

You can go years without having much of a problem with earwigs. Then one summer, when the environmental conditions align perfectly, you’ll see earwigs everywhere.

A mild winter followed by a humid and warm spring season can create the perfect situation for earwig populations to explode. This is because more adults survived the winter in their underground nests, and more adults means more eggs were laid. Each female will lay 20 to 80 eggs at a time, and in a particularly balmy and warm spring, the eggs will hatch quicker, and the nymphs will grow and molt faster.

The best check on excessive earwig populations is to encourage their predators to patrol your lands – and earwigs have many natural enemies that will hunt them down for a protein-packed lunch.

Birds are a joy to watch, and they come with the wonderful bonus of providing excellent pest control. Our feathered friends will tirelessly work over the garden, scouring and sussing out the earwig’s daytime hiding nooks. Make your garden more attractive to birds by adding birdbaths and birdhouses to the landscape and growing more trees and shrubs for them to perch in.

For the night shift, when earwigs are out and about and actively feeding, attracting bats will also do a heck a lot for keeping their populations down. From dusk till dawn, bats will hunt down and eat 3,000 to 4,200 insects every evening. Make your yard more inviting to bats by growing night-blooming flowers, providing a water source, and hanging up a bat house.

Several other creatures will do their part and eat up plenty of earwigs, including frogs and toads, lizards, spiders, and wasps.  

5. Set Out Shelter Traps

Even though earwigs aren’t social insects, they usually congregate together during the day in tight hiding spots. A glut of earwigs sheltering under a rock happens because of their aggregating pheromones that signal to nearby earwigs that they’ve got a nice little place of refuge.

We can use this knowledge to our advantage by setting down decoy shelters to trap and remove masses of earwigs from the garden, all at once.

Lay out some rolled-up newspaper, bamboo tubes, folded cardboard, or a short piece of hose on the soil next to plants just before dark. The next day, carefully pick up the traps and shake the earwigs sheltering inside into a pail of soapy water. Or save them for your chickens.

Repeat the procedure every day until you’re no longer catching earwigs.

Another earwig trapping contraption involves an upturned pot filled with straw and placed on a cane or stick. Here’s a great tutorial for making your own.

6. Make Oil Traps

Another effective way to eliminate an overabundance of earwigs in your yard is to make a few oil traps.

Use a shallow can, such as an empty cat food or tuna can, and bait it with a half-inch of vegetable oil and a drop of bacon grease, soy sauce, or fish oil. Sink the can into the ground, so the top of the can is at soil level.

Set the oil traps next to your earwig-ravaged plants and check them a few times a week. Dump out the collected earwigs and refill the cans with fresh bait.

What to Do When Earwigs are…Inside the House

Like boxelder bugs and lady beetles, earwigs are more of an accidental home invader.

They may wander indoors looking for shelter, but they don’t damage property, raid food pantries, or reproduce.

Any you find inside can simply be swept or vacuumed up and dunked in soapy water before discarding.

Look for entry points when you have repeated encounters with earwigs in the basement, underneath sinks, and other dark and dank areas of the home. Their flat bodies make it easy for them to crawl through narrow gaps, so be thorough when sealing around window sills, baseboards, and door thresholds.

As in the garden, rubbish stored around the exterior of the house can make indoor entry more attractive to earwigs. Leaves, newspapers, firewood, and other piles of organic matter should be cleared or moved away from the walls of your home.

And don’t neglect your gutters. Leaf-clogged eavestroughs are another preferred earwig refuge, so make sure you clean these out every autumn.

The post How to Stop Earwigs From Invading Your Home & Garden appeared first on Rural Sprout.

As summer evenings start to edge on the cooler side to make way for fall, you can put your ear close to the ground and hear the percussive march of teeny-tiny army boots.

Yes, that’s right, fall armyworm season is here, and the troops are on the move.

Their target – your lawn and garden.

These tiny marching caterpillars can easily decimate your lawn, and if hungry enough, they’ll happily head into the garden too.  

As their name suggests, armyworms travel in troops and eat as much as a small army, munching their way across the late summer landscape before burrowing into the ground to pupate and start the whole process over again.

When it comes to destruction, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more able pest. But what’s an organic gardener to do when they’ve sworn off the use of dangerous pesticides?

As it turns out, plenty.

In fact, the organic gardener has a plethora of tactics in their arsenal to help win the war waged by these hungry caterpillars each fall.

Read on to learn all the natural and highly-effective practices at your disposal when dealing with an armyworm invasion.

Oh, I was kidding about the tiny army boots. You can get up off the grass now.

Enemy Number One – Spodoptera

Armyworm is a generic term for several species of night-time moth larva in the Spodoptera genus. There are several dozens of species in the genus. Tobacco cutworm, beet armyworm, and Egyptian cotton armyworm are a few common culprits. They’re found nearly all over the world and can devastate anything from your yard and garden to commercial crops.

These little guys aren’t intimidating on their own; most are between 1 ½” to 2” long when fully grown. What makes them a problem is their mode of travel. Once armyworm eggs hatch, they travel and feed together in groups.

They eat voraciously before burrowing into the ground to pupate into the moth stage, which will emerge to lay eggs and begin the process again. Many of these moths lay well over a thousand eggs and can lay 4-5 generations each season.

When you start thinking about those kinds of numbers concentrated in a small area, it’s no wonder they pose a serious threat to gardeners and farmers alike.

Because they’re so small, it can be tricky to find them until you have a full-blown infestation where the damage is quite pronounced. Look for armyworms in the early morning or evening, when they’re most active, check under leaves, or if you’re looking for them in the grass, look for brown patches of grass with chewed tips.

Another easy way to test your lawn for armyworms is to mix two tablespoons of liquid dish soap into a gallon of water and sluice a patch of lawn with it. If your yard comes alive with wriggling bodies, you know you’ve got an armyworm problem.

(This won’t solve your problem by killing the worms, the soap merely irritates their skin.)

Identifying Armyworms

They come in your typical camo colors – brown, green, and black and are easily identified by several tell-tale traits.

• Colored stripes that run the length of their body – orange, yellow, brown or green
• These are not fuzzy caterpillars
• Some have four spots in the shape of a square down the body
• And finally, on their heads, you will find an inverted “Y,” as in “Why are you eating my lawn, dude?”

Time of Year and Weather Conditions

Infestations typically happen in late summer to early fall, but some cutworm species are active from March through October. It’s best to check with your local agriculture extension office to find out which species is most common in your area and when to expect them to emerge.

They thrive in periods of hot weather with occasional bouts of rain. These weather cycles create the perfect incubation conditions for the eggs to hatch out in great numbers.

How to Get Rid of Armyworms

1. Removal By Hand

Yup, this always tops the list of pest removal tips mainly because of how effective it is. Sure, it’s fussy, but I’m always amazed at how well it works. You’ll eliminate the pest without negatively affecting the other insects in your garden.

Drop the worms into a bucket of soapy water, where they will drown. Or, if you have chickens, drop the worms into a baggie or jar, and your flock will have a grand time eating these wriggling treats, and you’ll be rewarded with protein-rich eggs.

2. Encourage Their Natural Predators

There are many things besides chickens that like to snack on armyworms. Invite these critters into your lawn, and you can stop an infestation before it starts. Birds are great at keeping armyworms at bay, so consider taking steps to attract wild birds to your yard. Ladybugs, braconid wasps, lacewings and spiders also like to snack on armyworms, so encourage these beneficial insects to hang out in your garden.

One of the best ways to invite beneficial insects to hang out at your place is to plant a diverse array of plants in your garden. Flowers, like calendula and nasturtiums and herbs, like dill and chamomile, do an amazing job at attracting all types of beneficial insects. This is just another reason to adopt companion planting sooner rather than later.

The more you can mimic the incredible diversity of plants found in nature, the more balanced your mini-ecosystem will be.  

3. Start a Backyard Flock

Get yourself some chickens. I know, that seems like a big solution to a temporary problem. But if you find yourself dealing with numerous pests in your yard each year, like armyworms, ticks and mosquitoes, a few chickens will put a major dent in their numbers.

Not to mention you get the added benefit of eggs. Chickens are excellent at backyard bug control, and their personalities make it even more delightful to watch them while they work. Heaven forbid we see a bug and eat it before the others notice; no, we have to peck it and show it off, thus creating a fuss while everyone tries to steal it from the bird who found it.

4. Plant Trap Crops

Trap crops are grown specifically to lure garden pests away from other plants.

Consider planting trap crops outside your garden or along your property line to entice armyworms away from the main course. Corn can be a great trap crop for certain armyworm species. And if you have a year without armyworms, you can have corn too.

5. Garlic Oil Spray

This is a great recipe if you deal with armyworms every year. You can make it ahead of time, so it’s ready when they emerge.

Smash six garlic cloves well, then add them to a jar with a quarter cup of olive oil. Let the garlic mixture soak for at least a week. As needed, mix one tablespoon of the garlic-infused oil with two quarts of water and a couple of drops of liquid dish soap. Shake the mixture and spray down plants, soaking them completely.

This won’t kill the armyworms but prevents them from feeding on your lovely lawn and garden.

6. Protect Your Corn

If you deal with armyworms destroying your corn each year, rub a little cooking oil or shortening at the bottom of the stalk to attract ants to the corn. The ants happily munch on the armyworms but leave the corn alone.

7. Pyrethrin Spray

Pyrethrin spray is an effective insecticide made from white chrysanthemums. If your infestation is bad enough, it may warrant using a natural insecticide. But make no mistake that it is still an insecticide and will kill not just the armyworms but all insects it comes into contact with. This includes pollinators and beneficial insects. Save this as a last resort.

Spray in the evenings while armyworms are active and the blossoms of other plants are closed, so pollinator activity is limited.

Should I Do Anything at All?

Over the years, more organic gardeners are taking a hard look at their relationship with the insects we consider pests and choosing to do nothing. It’s becoming more apparent how interconnected even these tiny annoying insects in our gardens are to our lives. And our choice to wipe out one species of insect in the garden can often lead to the elimination of many beneficial species as well, species that would happily eat the pest species when left to their own devices.

When choosing what, if anything, to do, here are a couple of things to consider.

Is it early in the season? Younger plants are often not mature enough to handle many pests, and you may need to intercede.

If it’s later in the season, can you wait and see if this encroaching hoard keeps moving as it munches?

How close to harvesting are you? Rather than treating the caterpillars, consider an early harvest.

If they’re eating your lawn, how bad is the damage? If left, could the patch of turf recover within a few weeks? Or, does your damaged lawn present you with an opportunity to replace it with a creeping thyme lawn?

Often, true organic gardening means doing nothing and letting nature take its course. Usually, the surprising result is that our plants bounce back, and we miss a week or two of extra veg.

In the end, though, the choice is yours. Only you know what will work best and what level of pest infestation you’re willing to tolerate.

The post How to Deal with a Fall Armyworm Infestation Naturally appeared first on Rural Sprout.