Tag: Garden Pests

Tents of Caterpillars

I am noticing tents of caterpillars in fruit trees and other trees now. The adult moth lays eggs in a crotch of trees and the little caterpillars start spinning a web around the congregation. As they grow the tent becomes…

As long as there have been farmers and gardeners, there have been birds trying to eat their crops. And throughout the ages, farmers have tried to come up with ingenious ways to scare them off. Nowadays, scarecrows are familiar sights,…

It’s such a sinking feeling to have one’s garden pummeled by hail especially for farmers who lost crops. Anyways in a few days to a week you’ll probably get a good idea what is salvageable or not. It never looks…

We’re having a lot of trouble with diseases in tomatoes. Leaves turn brown from the bottom of the plant and move upward. Is it a blight or a wilt? We’ve moved the plants and rotated them to a new location…

Cedar apple rust is a fungal disease that requires juniper plants to complete its complicated two-year lifecycle. Spores overwinter as a reddish-brown gall on young twigs of various juniper species. In early spring, during wet weather, these galls swell, and…

Gardening in not a solo activity. I garden with my dogs, so I created a term called dog gardening. Issac, the white dog, likes to dig. I watch him toss a chunk of wood, he barks, howls; he furiously claws,…

Since plants need water, what’s the issue with too much rain? It results in wilting plants in the garden. Although soil may seem rather solid, there are lots of spaces between the particles. These spaces hold air and water, and…

If you’ve ever been out on a summer evening outdoors only to be startled by an inch-long, slow-flying beetle crashing into you, then you’ve encountered a June bug (which is actually a beetle) of which I have been receiving many…

Dog ticks are everyone’s nightmare especially your dogs’. Keep areas free of tall grass, weeds and garden debris – you’ll also discourage small rodents, which transport ticks. Place outdoor play and entertainment areas in sunny, airy spots, away from tick-prone…

Crabgrass is an annual grass with broad blades that are coarse, pointed and short. It doesn’t blend in with lawn grasses in color, habit or texture and can be very competitive. If left alone, it will invade your lawns, flowerbeds…

Bug lights, although most of us want to avoid attracting insects to our light bulbs for mostly selfish reasons (insects = annoying). Overall, incandescent light bulbs pulled in the highest number of insects, followed by CFL, halogen globes, and cool-colored…

Due to the excessive snow and cold temperatures, many of our beautiful shrubs are not looking their best and little rabbits are to blame. Rabbit damage is now showing up in the country or in town. Rabbit damage has been…

Today my quest is for a natural pest control method to deter deer from devouring my gardens, preferably without sophisticated fencing or expensive pest control services. Or by enrolling in a weaponry class. I jest. Sort of. The first time…

If your plants’ leaves have a white or gray dust on them, powdery mildew is probably attacking your garden. It’s a common disease, and different strains of powdery mildew attack a wide range of plants. This problem usually occurs toward…

By this time of the year, most people are during tomato harvest. I have been noticing blossom end rot is showing up now. This show up as a black or brown rotten area on the bottom of the tomatoes. There…