Author Archives: p-porter
Plan Bee: Insecticide tags on nursery plants
Lobbying efforts by “defenders of the bees” have been rewarded by one of the largest retailers of nursery plants requiring new tags on plants. As reported today by Nursery Management magazine, all Home Depot plants treated by greenhouse or nursery producers with one of the neonicotinoid insecticides will have to carry a special tag informing customers of the treatment and potential residues. What’s this about? It’s all part of a political and scientific brouhaha over a group of insecticides that were recently discovered to have some subtle, and possibly deadly,… Read More →
Kids, bee careful out there
Entomologists often walk a fine line between sounding alarmist and underplaying the importance of pest problems. Africanized honey bees and children are a good example. The potential seriousness of living with these bees was underscored yesterday when a gym class of middle schoolers disturbed a bee hive in a water controller box on a campus soccer field. According to news accounts, 20 students were stung, and several were taken to the hospital. Presumably the bees in this case were Africanized. Coincidentally this month, BBC News magazine interviewed Texas A&M entomologist,… Read More →
Powwowing about pollinators
Pollinator protection has become almost trendy recently. One of the spin offs of the honey bee controversy over CCD, is that the spotlight has come to rest not just on honey bees, but on all insects that pollinate plants. And this is a good thing. Today nearly everyone at some point is taught in school, or via Discovery Channel, that bees pollinate flowers; but I’ll wager that relatively few understand what this really means to all of us. Pollination is the biological process by which female plant parts are… Read More →
Late chigger season
It’s October, I’m still scratching chigger bites. Two weeks ago I gave a talk for Master Naturalists at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, and we took a 15 minute “field trip” to the flower garden around the building. The next day I counted 30 plus bites. Last weekend I swear I never left a sidewalk, and still felt the tell-tale itch of chigger bites. It could be just me but I’ve been getting calls from others, too, about chiggers over the past month. Chiggers are my personal least… Read More →
The NYT on CCD
The New York Times just published an article and video on the complex nature of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees. Author Clyde Haberman does a good job of presenting the case for the side of the debate that argues for multiple interacting causes of the bee problem. If you’re not familiar with CCD, it is a mysterious disorder that has afflicted 30% or so of commercial bee hives in the U.S. since 2006. Something about the problem has touched a nerve with many Americans who fear that… Read More →
Mosquito juice and science
Have you ever heard some scientific claim on radio or TV say something that made you stop and ask: “How do they do that?” Apparently this question bugged someone enough this week to call their extension agent and ask “How do you guys really know if a mosquito has west Nile virus?” I thought that was a pretty good question; and given the level of WNV testing going on right now in many Texas cities, it was one that deserved a public answer. You might wonder… Do they have veterinarians waiting… Read More →
Caution in the Caribbean
I had an inquiry today about the safety of travel to Caribbean destinations on cruises. The person was concerned about Chikungunya and whether a spouse with health problems should risk taking a Caribbean cruise. The answer is that Chikungunya is a risk if you decide to go ashore on most of the Caribbean islands. If you are planning a trip to warm Caribbean waters, don’t necessarily cancel your plans; but you should arm yourself with the information to know the risks. The Centers for Disease Control still rate travel to the… Read More →
Hollyhock thrips found in Dallas
It’s not too often that I come across an insect that appears to not have been previously recorded in Texas. But thanks to the sharp eyes and instincts of Johnette Taylor of Roundtree Landscaping in Dallas, I’ve added a new plant pest to my “life list”. Johnette was a little suspicious when a customer reported that an Althea (rose-of-sharon) that she had planted several years ago was yellowing and losing leaves. She noticed some small red insects covering the bark of the trunks, and took a picture with her phone. After… Read More →
Crape myrtle bark scale reduces bloom
As the crape myrtle bark scale spreads throughout Texas, one of the first questions we hear is “will the scale kill my tree?” The answer appears to be “no”, at least not often. To date we’ve not been able to show any crape myrtle tree death as a result of a bark scale infestation. But like many sap-feeding scale insects, these little scales can stress and reduce the appearance of the trees, while producing a prodigious amount of sticky “honeydew” that can coat the leaves and anything under the tree… Read More →
