bugs and diseases treating your plants?

Coleup -- I love your story. I just dropped my daughter off at college, where we found several HUGE roaches in the dorms. Someone complained about these roaches at a parent meeting and we were laughed at reproachfully, the notion being that we were too finicky. Supposed to be part of the college adventure. Still, I wouldn't like to share my living quarters with roaches....

Happy---

Buy some Boric Acid powder (careful! it is toxic) and shoot it down behind the sink, under the sink and the counters
as well as all the floor boards. "Shot"--because it comes in a BIG container with a spout.
Squish the container to "shoot" the powder anywhere you want.....

It is supposed to attract--and then kill roaches, as they take i back to their nests.
I fought Roaches for ONE year in my kitchen. Never knew where they came from--or where they went to.
But--they are gone. You can Google for more information.....

Gita

Happy, that's rather disturbing. Roaches are a health hazard!

I have a friend whose apartment was next to the trash drop. She had a serious roach issue when she first moved in, but using those Raid roach bait things (where they go in, take the poison, and infest their own colony) worked really well.

I haven't been outside much at all to prep for the fall swap. The mosquitos are worse than I remember from past summers. I went outside for maybe 90 seconds this morning and had bites all over my arms. Is there anything I can do to kill them? For some reason, they love hovering around the raspberries.

Happy- Holy carp. I was at College Park for four years and never saw one. For cryin out loud. YES on the boric acid. Is the place southern from here?

There are couple kinds orf roaches. Regular German ones, arethe typical infestation in apartments etc, bigger tan colored 'wood roaches' sometimes get in but prefer mulchand rotten wood; , really huge orientals are wider and black and usually just in very wet places. One day volunteering at my local public elem there were two orientals in the workroom sink. EEK! unusual to say the least. Never saw any roaches anywhere else in the school myself.

ssgardener- Ahgh they are terrible in my yard too. They hatch and hang around shrubs. I do not have any ponds or marshes around here. Interesting observation though- we went to the park by the river and weren't bothered in the least by skeeters!!! HMMM, could it be they have more natural enemies in the ecosystem, than in my yard?

Drink a lo tot of beer!
I have heard that the yeast in the beer repels Mosquitoes.....hic....hic...

Cheers!!!

Thanks for messages of support about the roaches at my daughter's dorm. She is by the water -- at St. Mary's College of Maryland. I sent her a container of boric acid last weekend, but so far she prefers dousing the miscreants with bug spray -- I've tried to educate her that that will kill the bugs she is seeing, but won't do anything about the nest, which boric acid might eradicate. Of course, she can't kill an entire colony at her dorm with one container of boric acid. If she keeps spotting roaches, I'll complain to the school. They had a major mold problem last year (as a result of being right on the water, and having a hurricane hit), so this might be an outgrowth of that.

Mosquitos? We always have a ton -- we are pretty close to Rock Creek. It makes it miserable to sit outside. I keep looking for a good place to put up a screened-in porch, but the layout of our house doesn't make that very feasible.

Oh, We had a huge mess at Poppy's house in Fl. a few years ago. It was when we were down there to help clean up after one of the hurricanes. We treated the house, yard and did a major cleanup inside and out. We didn't take anything into the house, I left our clothes in the suitcases in the car Ric took a lot of tools down and some of those needed to be kept inside and on the porch so when we left we put all the tools in the trailer covered it with the black rubber tarp and put off a bomb in side. Left it sit for two weeks before we opened it just in case.

Happy--

My daughter also went to St. mary's College. Graduated in 1991.

There is a 10'x10' gazebo on clearance ($88) at my HD. It has mesh walls--all around.
Kind of like curtains. From the top to the floor.

Check your HD and see if they have it. We seem to have a bunch of them in boxes.
Go to homedepot.com and find your way to the gazebos---maybe you will get ti see what it looks like.

OH! I can take my camera and get a picture. Leaving for work right NOW! Gita

Thanks Gita. I don't need a gazebo, so please don't take the time to take a photo for me, but thanks!

Yes the butterflies certainly seem to be plentiful this year - I'm telling y'all that I passed the PB shrub on to...just wait till it gets huge and full of blooms. Cable doesn't come close to how much we've been entertained by the masses of butterflies this summer!!

Now on to the other 'swarm' - the white flies are out of control! Understand I know they LOVE the gardenias. And yes my one gardenia has put on a huge amt of growth in the past year. They don't seem to affect/bother the plants but certainly have become a nuisance to the humans - incl my next door neighbor (townhouses) who likes to sit on his stoop. I will admit that I've not kept up with the neem spraying and should probably just make up a murphey's soap/alcohol batch but do any of you have any other non-chemical suggestions. As I've noted before, many of my herbs I use for culinary and/or medicinal purposes are out there. I simply won't use the toxins on them. Thanks for any suggestions....

Chantell, I got the extra PB bush and everyone that comes to the gardens thinks it is amazing. We planted it down behind the barn near the compost pile so it isn't centrally located but I always walk guests down there to smell it. It also gave me the extra push to clean up the area a bit more. It is a dumping ground for things we don't want to see but I have consolidated the mess a bit so the PB bush stands out more. The only thing in that area for me to move yet is the pallet of brick we have stored there.

I'm so glad you're enjoying it, Holly! I love that plant!

Is this a bad guy?

I'm pretty sure its bad- and that it's a tobacco budworm. I found a number of them on my Nicotinana and some on other things. Bugfiles pictures do not show this color but I think this color is variable. I know I have seen THESE guys here. I think Bug ID forum would give you a quick answer.

this is a budworm http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tobacco+budworm&FORM=HDRSC2


I think it's either armyworm or just a striped garden caterpillar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichordestra_legitima

Striped garden cat looks pretty good. I found two more today.

I call these two cats With and Without. Taken today on my tomato plants,

I almost feel sorry for With. So loaded with cocoons!

ALMOST sorry.

Yes, Sally, that is the most I've ever seen on one. And for the other, less than 3 feet away to have none, well,,,

Wow....very interesting reading and so right on target for what I found myself dealing with yesterday. Ants and stink bugs. For a day or two I was seeing an ant or two on the kitchen counter and was wondering where they were coming from. When I opened a bottom cabinet to get something, I found out where they were coming from. I found myself spending most of the afternoon taking every piece of food out of the cabinet, spraying ant spray and then proceeding to washing every item of food with a soapy wash cloth, drying it and putting it back inside the washed down cabinet. I also left an ant bait trap too. If that wasn't enough, upon inspection of the window in the master bedroom, I found three stink bugs inside the house. The others seemed to be outside, so I took my can of Bengal Gold Roach Killer which has proven to work well in killing them and sprayed around the outside of the window. A bit later, much to my dismay, I found out the bugs were actually inside so off to get some pieces of toilet paper, get those bugs and flush them bye bye. There must have been about twenty of them at the window. I have seen some others the past week or so too, but none as plentiful as at this window.

I too have had some sort of pest that has taken a liking to mainly my spider plants this summer. When inspecting for pests, the only thing I have seen is what must be a black larvae down in the very bottom of the plant where the leaves start growing. I have picked off what I could, and also dead head the affected leaves that have been munched on. Anyone familiar with a pest that prefers spider plants?

I have been lucky for the most part with my house plants and pests and can't really recall dealing with any sort of pests in the past. I hope that most everyone's pest problems are under control by now. Always something it seems.

Take good care all.

Ruby

We haven't seen many stink bugs this summer but they have really been making their presence know the last few weeks and I think that is what is doing some of the serious damage to my plants.

Ugh RUby what a chore on the ants! I can't help RE the spider plants.

Same here as Holly on stink bugs- none early summer but more frequent as these weeks go by.

Ever read that squash borers will NOT affect plants planted after July 4th? I don't agree. I planted some late squash, pretty sure I waited for that magic day. Today I pulled yet another sick dying plant, and got 5 young grubs out of the stem.

Ants can be such a pain in the....well you know. As I was preparing Holy Basil honey yesterday the girls were helping find the 'bugs.' Much more helpful to me than where's Waldo...LOL. Found numerous stink bugs on the basil...creepy little critters. Still dealing with the swarm of white flies out front...UGH!! Literally you brush against the gardenia on your way past and if you don't 'brush off' they're in the car with you via your clothing. I might have a colony residing in my lungs by now...sheesh!!

Holly, I am suspecting the same thing here in regards to stink bugs maybe being the culprit for plant damage. Earlier this week when watering a pot of very tall Zinnias, I had several fly away as the water hit. Yesterday I went out to take pictures of the damage to the spider plants and found some stink bugs hiding in several of the houseplants. Dang it!!!!

Anyway......the pcitures of my spider plants and pesty glob of black ick aren't very clear but I am hoping that someone here may have had something similar occur in the past and can tell me ways to treat. I have been pinching off any affected leaves and that seems to have cut back considerably on the damage on certain plants. I really don't want to think of bringing inside any sort of pest that may get in to the house......yuck!!!

I would appreciate any thoughts on what I may be dealing with here. Thanks folks.

Ruby

A wild guess??????

Looks like some kind of Caterpillar poop?????

Does look like bug poo.

More dying squash plants to day with more young and older vine borer grubs.

Dang......I have yet to see a catapillar though. Wow, will have to do a bit of research and see that I am doing things in order to prevent this from happening in the future. Thanks Gita and Sally.

Ruby

sheesh...I meant to go back out and take a pic of the fuzzy white caterpillar I saw when checking plants tonight...hmph...I shall check in the a.m. It was like those wooly ones..but white

Good to know Judy...I shall attack w/shop vac in one hand and sticky something in another...

Received this catalog today, mixed reviews on the stink bug trap but may be worth shot
http://www.plowhearth.com/get-rid-of-stink-bugs-indoors-and-out-with-stink-bug-traps_p406219.html

What's going on with my echi?

I wouldsay something has been sucking out juice from the cells. Hoppers, bugs...

I'm just back from The Killing Fields lol. Dozens of harlequin bugs, and a few striped garden caterpillars, on my brassica (Komatsuna mustard spinach) Plants look horrible but last year they survived, and when frost killed the bugs they went krazey.

Has anyone had their grass really badly torn up? Mine looks as if animals were digging and digging through the grass (actually, it is mostly weeds). I've never had this before -- I should post a photo. It is really dramatic -- just happened in the last few days.

My dog does that when playing with rock

but could be squirrels burying their nuts, skunks looking for worms or grubs

Look at this: Must be raccoons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2XaPmb75CY.

I'm going to do a booser "milky spore" treatment -- it has been at least 10 years....

This message was edited Sep 12, 2012 1:13 PM

Yes we are and it was surprising how fast and large of an area. I was thinking skunks like a good size family. Then we were talking to someone today about the new huge wasps we have just started seeing in the last two weeks. Very large gold and brown colored. They dig holes about and inch or so in the grass. Put a dead cicada in the hole and lay their eggs in the body. I have never seen these things before so I am wondering if that is what I am seeing in the yard. I haven't had a chance to look them up yet and I haven't found there nest. We think it is a ground nest and are sure it is somewhere in the junipers. I've been watching them go in and out but can't see where in there they are nesting.

Holly, I think there are some large wasps called "Cicada Killers"! I wonder if they go in cycles like cicadas do?

Sounds like them. The soil under the Junipers is dry and loose and un-vegetated just what they like. Plus they haven't seemed to be aggressive. Which is very good I would have a terrible time getting under the Junipers to get the nests. I sure don't want more of them next year but I don't see me fixing the issue anytime soon.