Category Archives: Pests of landscapes
Emerald ash borer enters Texas
If you’re a Texan and haven’t heard about an insect called the emerald ash borer, that’s about to change. The emerald ash borer (EAB) is an invasive beetle that feeds almost exclusively on ash (Fraxinus spp.) and has been slowly spreading through the eastern and midwest states from Michigan where it was first discovered in 2002. On May 23 the Texas Forest Service, along with the U.S. Forest Service, announced that four EAB beetles had been discovered on a trap in Harrison County, TX along the Louisiana border. Although… Read More →
Controlling fire ants in sensitive areas
Among the common questions I receive about fire ants include questions on how to control them within vegetable gardens, compost bins and (increasingly) chicken coops. My favorite tool for fire ant control is use of fire ant bait broadcast over the entire home lawn and landscape. This is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to keep fire ants away. To learn more about this, check out the Texas Two-Step Method factsheet. However, the most commonly available baits do not allow direct use in vegetable gardens or many areas with livestock…. Read More →
All Bugs Good and Bad webinar series
If part of your new year resolutions was to take charge of your life (and enhance your knowledge base about insects!) have we got a deal for you. This year the eXtension group (pronounced EE-extension) is offering a new series of webinars on insect-related topics that you can take advantage of from the comfort of your easy chair or desk or wherever you log on. For gardeners topics will include fruit and vegetable insect control, fire ants, bee protection, proper fertilization and even snakes! For homeowners and apartment dwellers,… Read More →
Oak leaf itch mite confirmed in Oklahoma
In the latest issue of Pest Alerts from the Entomology Department at Oklahoma State University, entomologist Justin Talley reports finding evidence of a biting pest that has not been seen in Oklahoma or Texas for over ten years. The oak leaf itch mite, Pyemotes herfsi, is cousin to the straw itch mite–a predatory mite often associated with stored grain and stored grain insects, and known to bite people who come in contact with infested grain. It was first reported in the U.S. from Kansas in 2004, a year… Read More →
Recognizing emerald ash borer damage
This summer my assistant spent the better part of her summer hanging and checking over 100 purple sticky traps to determine whether Texas has been invaded yet by the dreaded emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis. The beetle has already been detected in neighboring states of Arkansas and Louisiana; but much to our relief, after thousands of miles of winding county roads and many hundreds of traps, neither she nor our colleagues in the Texas Forest Service or Sam Houston State University found a single EAB. However, this beetle is elusive. And… Read More →
Bagworms in the fall
You’ve been watching your arborvitae all summer and noticing brown, spindle-shaped sacs hanging from the branches. Someone points out to you that these are bagworms, a case-making caterpillar that feeds on leaves and can be highly damaging, especially to evergreen trees and shrubs like arborvitae and cedar. Now it’s late September, what do you do? Before I answer that question, it’s worth pointing out that bagworms are interesting insects with a decidedly non-traditional life cycle. Bagworms are not really worms, but caterpillars, the immature stages of a nondescript moth. They… Read More →
Hackberry defoliator in north Dallas area
Over the past few weeks I’ve had several emails concerning a small caterpillar infesting hackberry in the Flowermound and Grapevine, TX area especially. After some initial head scratching over fuzzy pictures sent via email, my lab employees went caterpillar hunting yesterday and brought back a good haul of larvae feeding on sugarberry trees, Celtis laevigata. After sending pictures to colleagues, James McDermott of College Station identified the critters as Sciota celtidella, an obscure moth that has been recorded feeding on hackberry, Celtis occidentalis (Alma Solis, Bull. Biolog. Soc. of WA May… Read More →
Webinar on emerald ash borer available
If you live anywhere in east Texas and have an ash tree you love, you may want to check out this new webinar on emerald ash borer. The webinar reviews some history and background on the new invasive pest that is likely to enter Texas very soon. I was invited to present on this topic by Dr. Mengmeng Gu as part of her Spring Quick-Bite webinar series this week. So fair warning that you will be listening to me for 43 minutes. The webinar goes over some basic biology and how… Read More →
A roly poly invasion
Is it just me, or are we in the midst of a roly poly invasion? Now, I tend to not “see” some of the same pests other people see, because they just don’t bother me. I’ll look right past a spider in the house, because it’s just doing its thing. Similarly, I don’t tend to notice roly polies, also called pillbugs, because I’m so used to them living in the heaping piles of mulch around my home. The past month, however, working on my lawn and landscape, even I have… Read More →