What's bugging you, Mid Atlantic? summer 2014

What kind of insects or bugs are you seeing/ swatting these days?
Picture is some huge beetle found in central VA, a goliath?

Yikes! Not a beetle you want to meet in the garden ;-)

Got quite a few JBs in the past few weeks, but didn't see as many last weekend. Maybe because they had moved on after eating all the delicious rose buds in my garden :-(.

Saw a very small stink bug last Saturday. Probably a generation of baby stinckers are coming out this time of year. Must keep an eye on them. They ruined the fruit on my Jerusalem Cherry last year.

I have been blasting the Brugs with water this year. No spider mites so far. Hopefully I will get through the season free of mites.

I'm finding a few JBs here and there, and suspect they are making lots of holes when I'm not looking.
Pink Brug is always my worst with mites and it has now gotten them, I'm trying a rosemary (Pharm) spray. I should get the hose and try that, thanks for reminding me.
I have not found any stink bugs. I have not seen squash bugs yet but hope to try pinning the stems with straight pins in case.

Geez, you wouldn't want to be caught yawning on a motorcycle when one of those hits you.

Sally--

That HUGE beetle is probably the male of the same species I posted earlier...
the one we all saw at my friends 4th cook-out--who was a female. .

David ID'd it and I posted a link to it...it did say there that the males have
horns. Not sure which Thread it was in--but it was recent....
G.

Check out today's Kojo Nnamdi show, DC's local NPR talk show.

The second hour was about invasive bugs, and the guest was a researcher from the USDA, I think. I only got to listen to about 15 minutes of it, but it was interesting! Here's the link: http://thekojonnamdishow.org/

Ewwww. And of course Japanese beetles are one of the prime examples of this.

I still have a few JBs chewing on my rose bush, but aside from that they seem mostly gone from my yard now. Thankfully, they are leaving my hibiscus alone this year.

super thanks ssg! I'm listening now via the link

June beetles (also called June bugs and May beetles), are what's really bugging me right now! They come out at night to eat my plants, in particular Goldenrod and Joe Pye Weed.

Are June beetles the same as Japanese beetles? This is the first year in a long time that I've got Japanese beetles around and they have eaten holes in so many leaves. I haven't had a chance to anything about them yet.

I don't think June beetles and JBs are the same thing. I think June beetles are bigger and have more of a greenish color to them.

JBs are eating our Katsura! I saw some damaged leaves so I shook the tree and about 30 of those little jerks flew off. I said, heck no!! And I put down some systemic and watered it in. Then we got a bunch of rain so hopefully the tree will start soaking it up to the leaves to kill those little jerks.

June Bugs is a name that applies to beetle like bugs that fly around porch lights in June and early July. As a kid in Illinois our June bugs were all brown not green. Dragonfly Woman blog post speaks to this here
http://thedragonflywoman.com/2011/06/14/what-is-a-june-bug/

What's bugging me are Flatid Plant Hopper moths all lined up and breeding and inserting their eggs into 'woodier' stems, vines and twigs to emerge next Spring as white fluffy deposits that hop away when disturbed . Speedie noticed them on her Hosta bloom stalks (one of their favorites...there are many)

Flatid Plant Hopper moths--it's good to know what they're called. I have those in a few places as well.

They seem innocuous but they have killed some of the branches of mt Japanese Maples among other things. I hard clap my hands over nympth and adult to smash them and cut off parts of vines like in my picture and carefully drop into a large garbage bag for disposal. I have also started to vaccuuum them up with my small wet/dry vac like I do for stink bugs. Works pretty well but some plant leaves do get caught in vac, too. After due dilligence last two years, numbers are way down and I know where they hang out now!

I've been cutting off parts of plants affected with this too. It's good to have a name for it and more info.

The June beetles around my house are brown and either the same size as or maybe even a little smaller than Japanese beetles. They only come out at night, so it's hard to spot them. I shine flashlights on plants to find them.

I had horrible destruction of some things by those beetles last two summers; this year not so much. I found and dispatched about five JBs this evening on wild evening primrose, Oenothera biennis, the tall summer blooming one.

Loads of pigweed flea beetles on the red amaranth, as usual.

I don't know what kind of flea beetles hang out in my yard, but they like beer. I put square black nursery pots on their sides, then put little containers of beer inside the pots so the beer doesn't get diluted by rain. The slugs and beetles share the beer : - ), and sometimes a June beetle drowns itself as well.

Nice, I think I'll try that.

I've made fly traps again. Cut off top of bottle, invert to make a funnel entrance. Put something in the bottle that attracts flies, and some water to drown them. Put the funnel top in, use staples or tape that will stay sticky after rain to hold it in.

https://www.google.com/search?q=fly+traps+made+from+bottle&client=firefox-a&hs=bzI&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pDvHU6qkG5TJsQS8poFI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1025&bih=493

First idea here
http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-and-easy-homestead-uses-for-Plastic-Bottles-/

uses this setup for a mosquito trap. The bait is some yeast and sugar to create CO2 to draw in the mosquitoes! Clever! Who will try it first? I will try to get to it this weekend.

What bugs me was finding scale and it's accompanying sooty mildew on our largest holly, and wooly adelgid on our hemlock. I sprayed both with dormant oil and the holly is doing better, but the adelgid seems to be fine. I was and have to be careful of overspray on the hemlock due to it's proximity to my JMs. They don't like oil. Since neither attracts pollinators, except when the holly flowers, I will end up treating both with a systemic, like Bonide. I don't like using such insecticides, but I don't want to lose yet another species of evergreen. I prefer mechanical insect controls like DE, oil, and bio controls like companion planting, and milky spore.

What kind of holly is it that got the scale Ric? I've had such a hard time with pests for hollies. The only ones that seem to be immune so far are my Nellie Stevens. I only have 3 blue prince hollies and although the scale is subdued, the spider mites are harder to get rid of. I've sprayed them twice with Avid and I might do another spray this weekend.

On a positive note, I had a wicked aphid infestation on my photinia villosa. I sprayed the heck out of it with Neem and all the aphids are gone, yay! What's even better is that it seems like the leaves have recovered from curling as well.

Mechanical insect controls lol last evening I vacuumed up 8 pair of Japanese Beetles and near 400 of the Flatid Planthopper Moths. Hahaha, they never saw me coming!

Sally, I like that skeeter trap!

That was an interesting link about reusing plastic bottles. I'm not quite sure I got the whole point about putting them inside walls, though. I wonder if it is supposed to help insulate the house, or is just an alternative to dumping them in a landfill.

Sally, try putting out little dishes of beer for the flea beetles and let me know if it works. I always find some drowned in the slug traps.

hm Muddy, you may be on to something- or at least an excuse to have most of a beer as a refreshment tomorrow..
;^)

LOL! :-)

Sally, what ever works, LOL no need to use a whole beer.

Jeff, I think it was a Blue Princess/Prince holly in the hedge and a Blue Prince in the front yard (with the scale). The oil seems to have helped a lot, but I will also treat it with Bonide when I do the Hemlock.

Jeff--

I have had wooly Adalgae on my Hemlocks for years.
As with many "need-to-do chores--they all get forgotten. I am aware that
I need to do all these things, but I just don't feel like it...

I have sprayed ,y 2 shrubs (by the front entrance) from the inside looking out
with Neem and also with other sprays. It is what it is....
I keep them topped and trimmed as far up as I can reach every year.
Some of it requires teetering on a ladder....

They are old! sparse inside and not much growth on the bottoms.
I should limb them up and have Hemlock "trees".

The J. Beetles are bugging me the most right now...They chew up EVERY rose
bud to pieces before it ever opens.
When I have time--I go around with a cup of soapy water and shake them in
so they can gasp their last stinking breaths...


Geez! I sound so morbid.......shame on me...... G.

Not at all, Gita!
Just out of curiosity, why do people use soapy water?

You want morbid?? I rip the heads off the JBs. Thankfully, not finding that many.

The soap means they sink, otherwise in plain water they can float and climb out.

I'm surprised you can get away without spraying those Hemlock and not have them die G. I thought those buggers took down whole trees like it was nothing.

Ric, it drives me nuts that other people seem to be able to grow hollies with no issues and these people aren't even big gardeners. Just not fair...LOL

Thanks for solving that mystery Sally, I've been wondering that. I was out on JB patrol yesterday and found an earwig on a dahlia. In case anyone was wondering, they drown in soapy water too :)

Thanks Sally. I thought maybe it was so you don't see them drown.
Ripping their little heads off must feel good : - ) I usually step on June beetles. I'll try the soapy water, though; it'll be easier to knock them in a cup than try to grab them while holding a flashlight in the other hand.

Sequoia, I think it depends on part on the type of holly. Knock on wood, my Oakleaf Hollies are pest- and disease-free and I don't treat them with anything. I usually have a spider web or two on them and that helps.

Oakleaf Holly? I never new of such creature. Do you have pics?

Muddy, I was so plagued with June beetles , or I think specifically Asiatic beetles, little brown june beetles, last couple summers. I would go out after dark and find them all over the Montauk daisies and some other things. But could not figure how to hold the flashlight, soapy cup, and then use my ' third hand' to knock them in to the water....aggravating!
Bug files only has my entry after reading about them, but you can google the Latin name for more.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/6688/

Strangely, no problem this year.

UGH earwigs! They get everywhere! They are very common here, I never saw one in Baltimore County.

Yeah earwigs are super gross, like most bugs. I see no value to them.

I was watering the xeric garden today and noticed a bunch of baby crickets jumping about. They're tiny, perhaps 3/8-1/2".

the clean up crew is rarely valued but valuable nevertheless.

I took a bug break and chucked about 15 June beetles into soapy water. I was wondering what was chowing down on my Bigleaf Asters and yup, they love those too.

Seq, I don't have any good photos of my Oak Leaf Hollies, but here's a link with good photos: http://www.cherrylake.com/resources/TreeSolutionGuide/Oak_Leaf_Holly.pdf
I've been happy with how quickly they grow, especially the one that gets the most sun. The down side is that they produce very few berries.

Oh, my American Hollies don't get bugs or diseases either, and I've didn't even fertilize them for years because they're volunteers. Somehow I thought they weren't as worthy as plants I bought.

Coleup: That picture gives me the creeps...super gross

Muddy: They are a nice Holly, I don't think they'd make it up here though. It says zone hardy to 6 but they'd probably brown out and look ragged. I planted my American Holly from Gita a few weeks ago and it seems to be liking its new home. Hopefully it will grow a central leader as my specimen is irregular in growth habit at the moment.