LivingWithBugs e-Newsletter - July, 2005

featured book, website & Ken Gray image

Control root weevils in early summer. Root weevils have one generation per year. Adults emerge in early summer, feed for a few weeks then start laying eggs for the next generation. Larvae burrow into the soil and feed on roots, often killing their host plants. The best time to control root weevil adults is before they begin to lay eggs - early summer. See the root weevil page for timing and control information.

Use mosquito repellents containing DEET or picaridin. Mosquitoes start to be a problem in mid-summer. The best defense against mosquito bites is to use repellents. Repellents should contain either DEET or picaridin as the active ingredient. Use products that contain 10-50% DEET, the lower concentrations for children especially. There is only one product in the US currently with picaridin - Cutter Advanced.

It is the start of tick season. Ticks, like mosquitoes, start to be a problem in mid-summer. Again, repellents containing DEET are your best defense. See our tick page for more information. Do not allow any tick to remain attached (feeding) "while you figure out a way to remove it". Remove ticks immediately by whatever means available - see our suggestions.

Yellowjacket populations are building. Nests are approaching maximum size and worker numbers are peaking. See the yellowjacket page for life cycle information. Be careful when gardening and working outdoors between now and October because this is when most of the dangerous encounters with yellowjackets occur. Be especially cautious when using machinery that makes a low rumbling sound like lawn mowers, tractors, chain saws, brushcutters, etc. as this noise tends to agitate workers and may provoke swarming behavior.

Now is a good time to do outside inspections for carpenter ants. Mid-summer is a great time to do inspections for carpenter ants. It is also a good time to cut back and remove any vegetation that is touching the exterior of the house.

Gardening Tip. Use insecticidal soap and a strong spray of water to eliminate aphid and spider mite populations. Believe it or not this is one of the best ways to control aphids and spider mites on plants that you can reach with the spray from a hose.

Let's say you have a bed of roses infested with aphids. In the morning hose the plants down with a spray of water from the garden hose. Use enough water pressure to "flutter" the foliage (but not too hard!). This will remove most of the aphids, honeydew and debris. Next, spray the plants with a solution of 1-2% insecticidal soap. The soap will kill any remaining aphids, getting into cracks and crevices that the water alone missed. Wait 30 minutes then rinse the plants with water to remove soap residue. Since this procedure leaves no insecticide residue you may need to repeat it in a couple of weeks but it is generally more effective then conventional insecticides and is a whole lot safer!

This is one of Elizabeth's recommended garden books. As the name suggests the coverage is broad and encyclopedic rather than specific and in-depth. You'll probably also want reference books that cover certain topics in more detail but this book will become a source for most of your routine questions. For example, we recently needed to know the ratio of cement to peat to sand for hypertufa - sure enough we found the recipe here. Another example, Elizabeth checks here every year before pruning her grapes and fruit trees to refresh about "best pruning practices".

It covers garden planning, care instructions for many common plants, garden design, outdoor structures and general maintenance. The color illustrations and photos are especially good. This publisher, Dorling Kindersley, uses a technique for isolating the subject from the background that makes their illustratons especially clear. My only complaint is that like other books of this type it is large and fairly heavy (oversized, 650+ pages), much too big to take into the garden!