Northeast Gardening: Daily Musings - page 16, 0 by grampapa

grampapa wrote:
Cat, very cool on the lady slipper! I would love one, but I'm afraid I would spend the $$$ and then kill it.

Andy, I had the JB's 'rising' from my front lawn this year. they were just hovering about a foot above the ground everywhere. it was creepy. definitely getting the milky spore. last year was the first I had ever seen them. they just about decimated my river birch. the leaves were all lace. I put a drench of Bayer Tree & Shrub insect control on it this year. Heard about over on the rose forum. only affects the insects that eat the leaves, so it won't harm bees. no spraying, which I don't like (I'm asthmatic, plus it gets on everything, whether you want it or not). took about 5 minutes tops (dilute in a gallon of water and pour it on at the base of the tree). lasts a year. one day the tree was covered with them. 2 days after the Bayer they were gone. very few have gotten as far as my rose garden. I don't use chemicals generally, and definitely not in the rose garden..I hand pick them there.

they also love this daylily, so it serves as kind of a trap before they get to the back yard (where my beloved roses are). I can hand pick off the daylily.