Pests Pests Pests

Hello again gardeners! Let's talk about pests. Most pests are not serious enough to worry about but there are a couple that we should address. The first is Emerald Ash Borer. Emerald Ash Borer was imported to the United States from China. Most borers only attack trees that are stressed. A good example of this is bronze birch borer. This pest will kill a white birch but if the birch is kept healthy the borer will not attack it. Also there are drenches and injections now that can kill the borer and save the tree or prevent the borer from doing damage. The problem with emerald ash borer, is that they will attack any ash tree. Young, old, big, small, it doesn't matter. There are injections available now to reverse the damage or prevent any damage, but I would not recommend it for any ash that is not a specimen tree. The treatments are expensive and have to be done every 3 years. There are a lot of Ash trees that grow in fields and ditches and aren't worth saving. But if you have say an Autumn Applause Ash in your front yard, you are going to want to have it injected. Pest number two that I want to talk about is Japanese Beetle.Japanese Beetle was also imported to the United States but this time from Japan. The reason it is such a problem for us is that we have no natural enemies to help control them. The Japanese Beetle spends its young life as a grub in the soil. While in the soil, it chews on the roots of our turf. This pest was not a problem in Japan until recently. They started to become a problem when the Japanese decided to have more golf courses. The beetle found a great source of food under those golf courses and now their natural enemies can not keep up with them. They are a huge problem for us because not only do the larvae chew on the roots of the grass but the adults eat and eat and eat the flowers and foliage of many of our ornamental plants. I have a friend that says, " all they do is screw and chew." What can we do about them? Well one thing you can do is pick them off with your hands and dump them in a kill jar. Picking them off can be a lot of fun and it is also satisfying. Maybe you can pay your kids a nickel a beetle and have them do it. A kill jar is a jar filled with ammonia or vinegar that kills the little buggers. Another solution is to spray them with an insecticide. Unfortunately the insecticides used to kill them are registered chemicals better left to the trained expert to apply.