I’ve long battled animal pests and weather assaults in my annual quest to grow intact vegetables, but one common problem that’s never vexed me much is one that plagues a lot of other veggie gardeners this time of year – bugs. Garden bugs can be a big problem and do a lot of […]
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.