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SPRING PEST CONTROL
From the Desk of: Jack Rowe, Quality Assurance Manager
It's spring - time to think about yer bugs … I know, I know, you don't wanna think about bugs, but they just won't go away by wishing it. The key to paying very little for insect control is knowing what to look for BEFORE you get the damage. Once the damage is done, it's DONE. No amount of spraying will help. A pinpointed application or change in plant culture can eliminate a problem. You just have to be in the know.
Bagworms are a great example. They are native to the USA and we have about 20 species of them. They feed mostly on evergreens and are very often completely missed until they have almost completed their lifecycle and practically destroyed a valuable ornamental. They are also just about the most common pest of commercial landscapes. There are 2 times of the year you can stop them easily:
- In the wintertime: those dangling bags are filled with eggs; anywhere from around 80 to 1500 of them. The bags highest on the branches (or up on the wall, sign, post, etc.) are mostly likely bags filled with eggs. Pick them off - all of them. You have just eliminated almost all of next year's bagworms without a paying for a single drop of poison.
- In the springtime: for the eastern part of the country, May, for the westerners, March or April. The eggs in the bags hatch in spring and the tiny caterpillars drop on silk threads from the bottom of the bag. By mid-spring, look for small pencil lead sized cones of silk and plant tissue moving on the foliage. You have to get close for this. Once you spot them, make an application of relatively safe insecticide (Sevin, Bacillus thuringiensis or an insecticidal soap). One application should destroy almost all the caterpillars for the season.
The control of pest insects is not as simple as ordering up a spray, no matter how much we have been cultured to believe that by large companies. Some actual knowledge is essential to prevent a problem. As in all business, stopping a problem before it begins is more economic than trying to control a problem already underway.
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