If you’re growing any boxwoods in your yard, you might want to make a note to check them starting next spring for the latest deadly threat facing our top-selling shrub. A new bug called the box tree moth officially entered Pennsylvania this fall. The state Agriculture Department confirmed reports of the bug’s […]
If you live in an urban setting or other more-populated/less-tree’d area, you may be wondering what all the hubbub is over Brood X cicadas, that bug that emerges en masse only once every 17 years. It’s entirely possible you may not see (or hear) a one. However, if you’re in an area […]
Many of you no doubt noticed that new bug in town late last winter – the spotted lanternfly. This rather large (pinky-sized) flying insect with the spotted grayish-tan wings (red underneath) has now made its way from its initial 2014 invading point of Berks County to throughout the Harrisburg area. Lanternfly adults […]
I wrote a garden column for the Patriot-News a few years ago on a talk that University of Maryland entomologist Dr. Michael Raupp did at a plant conference. He made the interesting argument that bugs are a healthy part of any ecosystem (including home gardens) and that the key to keeping them from […]
Bugs. We like it when those pretty little skippers and monarchs flit around the flowers. And more people are coming around to the idea that bees are a good sign in the garden and that spiders do more good than not. But pretty much everyone is aghast when Japanese beetles swarm […]
Maybe you’re lucky enough to garden in an area where you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say, “Aren’t the gnats horrible?” But if you’re anywhere within 20 miles of one of the Pennsylvania streams and rivers where gnats – black flies, to be more accurate – breed, you’ll know exactly what […]
The loss of the pollinator population is something home gardeners can help by knocking off spraying, planting more variety and not “sanitizing” the landscape.
The multiple “polar-vortex” episodes of the 2013-14 winter spelled death for some bug populations, but don’t expect any 90-percent stinkbug kill-offs, as you might’ve heard.
Those little black bugs flying around your houseplants most likely aren’t “fruit flies.” They’re probably fungus gnats, and sand and patience make a good team to get rid of them.
What to do about those pesky grubs eating the roots out from under your lawn? You might first want to check out the hair arrangement on the grub butts. Seriously. There’s an important clue there…