|
Under Construction!
Treatment For Pests and Diseases
_____________________________
Although some insects and diseases can't be avoided completely, keeping the garden and landscape clean will help reduce
plant problems. In the fall or early spring, burn or haul away old leaves, and dibris like hulls, unharvested nuts and such.
During the growing season, get rid of any nuts or fruit that fall prematurely (they may have worms inside). After a harvest,
clean up all vines, leaves, and fruit, and spread them on the compost pile or spade them into the soil. Remove any plants
that are obviously infected.
Insects
Insects can damage plant growth and render your crops unattractive and inedible unless early preventive measures are
used. The most commonly found insects - and the procedure to control them - include the following:
Aphids:
Aphids, which come in several colors and sizes, suck plant juices, stunt growth, pucker and curl leaves, deform buds
and flowers, and generally disturb your garden. The honey-dew they secrete attracts ants and is a medium for the growth of
black sooty mold fungus.
*Hosts: All Plant Species
*Controls: Diazinon, Malathion, Sevin.
Beetles:
Within this huge, diverse group of insects are many beneficial as well as destructive insects.
|
|
Ladybird beetles (ladybugs)
Black ground beetles
Praying Mantis
*These are beneficial insects that control pests like aphids, grub worms, and other harmful
insects.
|
|
|
Elm leaf beetle (larvae) : Eats all but veins of leaves.
Elm bark beetle (adult) : Eats bark of weak trees,
carries spores of the Dutch elm disease fungus.
Flea beetle : Eat a shot-hole pattern into leaves of
young plants and spreads disease causing viruses.
Striped Cucumber beetle (larvae) : feeds on roots of
cucumbers, muskmelons, and winter squash.
Striped Cucumber beetle (adult) : feeds on the leaves
and blossoms of many plants. Spreads diseases such as
bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic.
*Controls: Diazinon, Malathion, Sevin
|
Bugs:
To non-gardeners any insect is a bug, but not to a gardener, "bugs" are a suborder of insects - generally unpleasant,
destructive, and difficult to manage. Bugs have an incomplete metamorphosis. Nymphs resemble adults, but are smaller and lack
wings. As bugs suck juices, many inject a toxin that causes unsightly spots on the plant and wilting occurs.
*Hosts: General feeder throughout the garden or landscape.
*Controls: Diazinon, Malathion, Sevin.
|
|
~ For the most part, these are the larvae of moths and butterflies. They come in all shapes
and colors; some are naked, others hairy; some are decorated with tufts or spines. All feed on foliage. Many
have a spinneret with which they make silk thread. Their names are derived from their appearance, hosts, or their way of life.
Example: Leaf Rollers, bagworms, hornworms, pickleworms, and leaf skeletonizers.
|
Banded woolybear: Larvae of the tiger moth. When touched rolls into a ball. It feed on all garden
plants.
Hornworms: Big worms (2-3 inches long) with big appetites. Loves tomatoes, leaves in the garden
seem to disappear overnight.
Leaf rollers and tiers: These caterpillars feed inside rolled or tied together leaves.
*Hosts: Basswood, Canna, Elm, Honeylocust, Honeysuckle, Locust tree, Oak, Red-Bud, Willow, and
many others.
Loopers, inchworms, measuring worms, and canker worms: Many kinds of caterpillars all have the
same movement, doubling or looping as they crawl. On trees, they feed on new foliage in the spring and are known as canker
worms. In the vegetable garden, the cabbage looper eats ragged holes in the leaves of cabbage and lettuce.
Tussock moths: Their larvae feed on many decidious shade trees, and are notorious for skeletonizing
the leaves. In the East, the first generation feeds from April to June, the second in August and September.
Webworms and tent caterpillars: They don't all use the same approach. Some build unsightly "tents"
that look alot like spider webs, in the forks or crotches of trees and crawl from them to feed. Others web together needles
or leaves (usually at the ends of branches) and feed beneath the webs. Many trees and shrubs become hosts.
*Control: Diazinon, Sevin
|
Corn earworm:
Corn earworms (also called tomato fruitworms) enter the tip of the corn's ear and damage the kernals.
* Control: Sevin Spray or dust (apply 1, 4, and 7 days after the silks appear). Repeat weekly until the silks are brown.
Be sure to read the label for instructions about the minimum time between the last application and harvesting.
European Cornborer:
A borer that damages both stalks and ears or corn, from the base or side.
*Control: Sevin spray (apply in the center of the leaf whorls when ear shoots form). Repeat at least three times at 5
day intervals. Spray until runoff occurs at the base of the plant.
|
