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Post by binnylou on Jul 27, 2020 23:13:57 GMT -5
I’m still doing a daily afternoon catch and drown of Japanese Beetles. How much longer will they be a problem?
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Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 2, 2020 13:01:24 GMT -5
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 2, 2020 20:33:19 GMT -5
This year was in some ways, and thus far, kind of odd for insects. I didn't see a lot of the ones I usually see, but something literally wiped out all the climbing rose leaves. The stems are still good, but the flowers and leaves were decimated.
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Post by claude on Aug 3, 2020 6:24:07 GMT -5
Me too, spring rain. Normally, I’m fighting squash bugs all season...very few this year. Cucumber beetles? Yes. Spreading bacterial wilt. Only difference? I moved different crops around a bit. Used a new trap crop of volunteers calendulas in the garden. Instead of removing them. Could it be that simple?
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 3, 2020 11:54:26 GMT -5
claude, if calendulas work as trappers, I'll plant some as well. Maybe it's time to dig out that companion planting chart I created a few decades ago. Did the bugs wipe out your roses in the same areas as mine, flowers and leaves? If so, I'm wondering if there's a new bug attacking roses. I wish I'd taken samples to take to the MSU Education Extension Center, but it was probably closed anyway b/c of Covid-19.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 3, 2020 16:08:51 GMT -5
I had a bunch of calendulas from old seed I planted to see if it was viable. Filled pots on the front porch. Just thinking today that they should be thinned out. Maybe now I'll transplant the extras among the veggies. See what happens.
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Post by claude on Aug 5, 2020 6:43:31 GMT -5
Just be careful putting them in your garden...the single plant I put in there reseeded itself 15-20 more places...I was digging them up and gifting gardeners all spring
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Post by Wheelgarden on Aug 8, 2020 21:51:23 GMT -5
Here's a newcomer to the yard (or one I haven't seen before), approaching an old carpenter bee nest. Large wasp, about 2 inches in length. Has appeared in groups of a dozen or so. I've been here for almost thirty years, and never seen them before. Poor photo, but does anyone know what it might be?
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weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
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Post by weedkicker on Aug 8, 2020 23:05:21 GMT -5
I’ve noticed something very odd this summer. Yesterday afternoon my wife and I went on a motorcycle ride. We left at 3:30 pm and arrived back home around 8:00. It was a leisurely trip and we traveled about 120 miles total. On a ride like that we would normally encounter numerous clouds of insects, and we would get bug smacked on the arms and face shield multiple times. Upon arriving home we would have to clean the bugs of our helmets before putting them away, and the motorcycle windshields would be splattered with various insects. But when we got home last night it occurred to me that I hadn’t been hit a single time. I mentioned it to my wife and she said, “now that you mention it, neither did I." Our helmets were both as clean as they were when we started. As we talked about it we both realized that our previous two trips were the same. And then this evening it occurred to me that I’ve seen very few flies this summer. Normally we would be swatting a few in the house on a regular basis, but I have yet to see a single fly in the house, and when I asked my wife, she again said, “now that you mention it, neither have I”. But what is really weird, is that I am seeing ZERO moths flying around our outside lights. Just before logging on here I went out to look again, and there are NO moths around any of the three outside house lights. Last year they would be swarming the lights every evening, and I would go outside in the morning and there would always be scores of moths clinging to the stucco under and around each light. This year I haven’t seen a single moth on the walls. Like I said, it’s very odd. Anyone else seeing fewer insects?
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Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 9, 2020 7:12:01 GMT -5
Anyone else seeing fewer insects? Yes. Because there are fewer mosquitoes, I can wear Bermuda shorts in the garden. Last year I couldn't. A praying mantis is on a plant by the back door step. It has been there a week, and I haven't seen it catch anything. I keep telling it, "If you don't go somewhere else, you are going to starve." It doesn't listen to me either.
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Post by datgirl on Aug 9, 2020 8:00:56 GMT -5
I haven't noticed a decline here. Mosquito's are plentiful and the bees too.In fact I've seen more butterflies in the garden than usual.
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Post by desertwoman on Aug 9, 2020 8:31:02 GMT -5
I've seen both sides weedkicker, Way less flies- only 3 so far!! But this whole area had a moth invasion earlier in the summer. It was intense. More than I've ever seen. Maybe all of yours were here ;) They have let up the past couple of weeks. Now hardly any.
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 9, 2020 9:08:29 GMT -5
I think the mosquitoes have all came this way. Of course there is a swamp nearby too. I'm not seeing as many bees this year and what I am seeing are bumblebees. I've noticed them around the corn and sunflowers and hoping they find their way to the squash and cucumbers.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 9, 2020 11:34:23 GMT -5
wheelgarden1, could that actually be one of the giant hornets? Or a species new to the US, a giant wasp? The head coloring is different, but one may be a juvenile. www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/us/asian-giant-hornet-washington.htmlSearched for giant wasps but their coloring isn't consistent with the one in your photo, not that that's necessarily determinative. The only changes I've noticed are a few more insects inside, only a few flies outside. I'm not attacked by mosquitoes when I walk through the garden though, and that's unusual, but the raspberry bushes have been choked out and aren't proliferating.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 9, 2020 15:54:59 GMT -5
The hornet is not anywhere near Georgia and is not very invasive at all. Just a lot of hype, like the MILLIONS of CANNIBAL ANTS escaping a RUSSIAN NUCLEAR REACTOR. Turns out that was regular wood ants which kept falling down a vent in the abandoned building and couldn't get out. They presume they must be cannibals because: what would they eat down there? Uh... how about other bugs which also fell down the vent. They also thought they were cannibals because the ant bodies in their underground ant cemetery area had little marks like they were held by mandibles. Umm... perhaps while being carried there by their fellow bereaved ants. The scientists (who were studying bats) put in a little escape ramp and the ants left back to their nearby nest. They still fall down, but crawl back out.
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