by Sheila Dunning | Jun 23, 2015
Air potato (Dioscores bulbifera) is a perennial, herbaceous self-twining vine that can grow over 60 feet in length, enabling it to climb over and smother many native plants. The Florida Exotic Plant Pest Council (FLEPPC) lists air potato as a Category 1 invasive plant, which means that it has disrupted natural communities and ecological functions by displacing native plant species.
In 2012, a leaf feeding beetle (Lilioceris cheni) was introduced into South Florida from China for biological control of air potato. Although it is too early to determine any potential long-term impacts, the initial results have been promising. The larvae and adults of the air potato leaf beetle feed on the leaf tissue and occasionally the bulbils. The damage to the growing tips of the plant have dramatically reduced its ability to cover native vegetation. Extensive damage to air potato was evident within three months after the first release. Additionally, testing by scientists at the USDA/ARS Invasive Plant Research Laboratory in Fort Lauderdale concluded that the beetle will not complete development on any other plant found in Florida.
The female air potato leaf beetle lays an average of 1,200 eggs, which develop into larvae in about four days. The young beetles skeletonize the air potato leaves for the next eight days and then pupate into foam-like cocoons. Clumps of cocoons fall to the ground and the adult beetles emerge 13 to 16 days later. There can be a new generation of air potato leaf beetle every month while the weather is warm. For the winter, the adults hide in leaf litter and wait for spring.
The question now is: “How well will they survive through a longer, colder Northwest Florida winter?”. USDA scientists, UF Extension agents and citizen scientists in Bay and Okaloosa County hope to find out. Earlier this month, June 2015, air potato leaf beetles from the Hayslip Biological Control and Research and Containment Laboratory in Ft. Pierce were released into areas containing air potato. They will be monitored over the next year. Look for an update next summer.
by Les Harrison | Jun 15, 2015
Eastern Blood-sucking Conenose bugs are found in and around plant where they are hunting for insects.
While it is not exactly a jungle “out there” in the landscape, there are some occasionally encountered insects which can inflict pain. The kissing bug and the blood-sucking conenose are native insects which are best not physically encountered.
The native kissing bug, Triatoma sanguisuga, is part of the assassin bug family. This insect is commonly called a kissing bug because it targets the soft tissues around the mouth of mammals as a feeding site.
As if being in the assassin bug family is not bad enough for its image, this pest’s South American cousin is responsible for inoculating victims with Chagas disease. Chagas disease, a protozoan infection, has occurred in some western states but not Florida.
The bloodsucking conenose, in assassin bug family too, is found in north Florida. It is a dark brown, winged bug, 3/4 inch long, with the edges of its abdomen alternating in light and dark colors.
They have a slender, straight beak with piercing-sucking mouthparts. The antennae are inserted on the side of the head between the eyes and the end of the beak.
They are rarely seen during the day, instead hiding in leaf litter and other debris near their intended host. Birds apparently consider them quite tasty and are easy targets for avian predators.
Kissing bugs primarily feed at night on the blood of sleeping animals, such as raccoons and opossums which burrow in the vicinity.
Their life cycle varies considerably depending on temperature, humidity, and availability of hosts. Females lay one egg at a time, up to five eggs each day.
Problems arise when these insects encounter humans. If this creature enters a home or dwelling, its nocturnal habits make humans easy prey.
The bloodsucking conenose will enter into a home by crawling through cracks in the foundation, torn window screens, or other structural flaws or inadequacies. Many times they enter by simply clinging to a domestic pet or to the clothing of an unaware person. Once indoors, they are found in bedding, cracks in the floors and walls, or under furniture.
Most bites from conenose bugs are rarely felt. However, some can be quite painful and infection can occur if the wound is scratched and contaminated.
The assassin bug, the entomological cousin of the kissing bug, usually is encountered in foliage and has little inclination to enter homes. It is capable of delivering a nasty surprise to the unsuspecting gardeners who disturb this ambush predator.
The green leaves and pretty flowers are an ideal habitat for the assassin bug and the kissing bug to put the bite on ideal menu selections. This is something to keep in mind this spring when enjoying the panhandle Florida’s great outdoors.
To learn more about the assassin bug or the kissing bug, contact your UF/IFAS Extension Office.
by Roy Carter | Jun 10, 2015
Saddleback Caterpiller, Image Credit Matthew Orwat UF/IFAS
The four major stinging caterpillars occurring in Florida are the Puss Caterpillar, Saddleback Caterpillar, IO Moth Caterpillar and Hag Caterpillar. Some less common ones also occur in the state. These caterpillars do not possess stingers, but have spines (nettling hairs) that are connected to poison glands. Some people experience severe reaction to the poison released by the spines and require medical attention. Others experience only an itching or burning sensation.
Stinging caterpillar’s feed on many pants, but they seldom are present in large enough numbers to cause serious damage. Their stings, rather than feeding, pose the primary threat. That’s why it’s important to learn to recognize and avoid these cantankerous crawlers. My information on stinging caterpillars was provided by Extension Entomologist Dr. Don Short and Dr. D. E. Short of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
The puss caterpillar is stout bodied, almost an inch long, and completely covered with gray to brown hairs. Under the soft hairs are stiff, poisonous spines. When touched, the spines break off in the skin, causing serve pain. The saddleback caterpillar has a more striking appearance. It’s brown, with a wide green band around the middle of the body. There’s a large brown spot in the middle of the green band, giving the appearance of a brown saddle on a green blanket. The saddleback may exceed and inch in length, and is stout bodied. The main poison spines are born on pairs of projections near the front and rear of the body. There’s a row of smaller stinging organs along each side.
I O Moth Caterpillar, Image Credit UF Entomology
The IO moth caterpillar is pale green, with yellow and reddish to maroon stripes along the sides. It often exceeds two inches in length, and is fairly stout bodied. The poisonous spines, which form rows of bands across the body, are usually yellow with black tips.
The light brown hag moth caterpillar has nine pairs of variable length protrusions along its body, from which poisonous spines extend. The protrusions are curved and twisted, giving the appearance of disheveled hair of a hag.
Most contact with stinging caterpillars occurs in the spring and summer. As might be expected, children, campers, and gardeners are most frequent victims. When playing or working outdoors in infested areas, it pays to wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, and gloves.
Reactions to caterpillars poison vary with an individual’s sensitivity. Itching, burning, swelling, and nausea may be experienced. In severe cases, fever, shock, and convulsions may occur. If a person has a history of hay fever, asthma, or allergy or if allergic symptoms develop a physician should be contacted immediate. In cases of milder reactions, a strip of adhesive tape should be placed on and pulled off the affected area repeatedly to remove the spines. Then, apply ice packs, followed by a paste of baking soda and water.
Since so few stinging caterpillars are normally found on plants around the home mechanical methods usually offer the easiest means of control. Just carefully remove and crush the caterpillars, or knock them into a pan of kerosene. If a pesticide is needed, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Seven or Malathion may be used in accordance with label directions for caterpillar control.
For more information on Caterpillars contact your UF/IFAS County Extension Service or visit www.http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu and see Publication 107 – Stinging and Venomous Caterpillars.
Puss Caterpillar, Image Credit University of Florida
by Roy Carter | May 26, 2015
The proverbial picnic scene aside, ants are pests all of us have to deal with from time to time. Both inside and outside our homes, they feed on and contaminate our food, they build ugly mounds on our lawns, and some ants can inflict painful bites or stings.
Several species of ants are found in Florida. The most common can be grouped into three categories: House-infesting ants, yard infesting ants, and carpenter ants. In this article we’ll talk about ant biology and behavior and how to control them.
Florida Carpenter Ants. Photo credit: UF/IFAS.
Ants have a life cycle similar to many other insects. They go from egg, to larva, to pupa, to adult. Eggs are almost microscopic in size and hatch into soft legless larvae. The pupa resembles the adult ant, except it is soft, uncolored and immobile. It can take from six weeks to two months from egg to adult.
Ants are social insects. They live in colonies much like bees do. Most colonies have a queen ant, male ants, and worker or female ants. Colonies are started by queens, whose primary function is reproduction. The queen may live for many years and is usually replaced by a daughter queen. Males are produced in very old or large colonies, and their sole function is to mate with the unfertilized female, after which, they die. Worker ants construct, repair and defend the nest, provide food for the colony, and take care of the young ants.
Most ants are omnivorous, which means they will eat anything, through some do have specialized food habits. Ants locate food by random searching; when one ant finds food, she informs the other workers in the colony. The exact method of communication is unknown, but in some cases, ants can leave scent trails that other ants can follow to the food source.
Because ants are attracted to any type of food or food particles, your best bet to controlling ants inside your home is to keep it very clean. Store food in airtight containers. Never substitute insecticides for inadequate housekeeping.
The key to eliminating ants is locating and destroying the colony. Sometimes this can be a real problem, because ants are very adaptable. Outdoor nesting species can sometime nest indoors and vice versa, depending, on the food supply.
To find the ant colony, you have to watch the movement of the ants very closely. Outdoors, many ants are easy to locate, because they deposit earth on the soil surface, and form ant hills. But some outdoor ants build nests under house foundations, in decaying logs, and tree trunks. These can be difficult to locate indoors. Ants may nest in walls, behind baseboards, in cracks, and in decaying wood.
Spray, dusts, granules, and baits can be useful in controlling ants. When using these products, treat baseboards, door and window frames, and cracks and crevices between walls and flooring. Treat all areas where ants appear to have trails. If the nest is located, apply an insecticide to the nest according to the pesticide label.
For more information:
Ants
Fire Ants
Carpenter Ants
by Sheila Dunning | May 22, 2015
Everyone with a landscape can make a difference for pollinators. Simply Having Areas Reserved for the Environment enables homeowners, land managers, farmers, individuals, corporations, schools, roadside managers, and golf courses to increase the number of pollinators in the area by making conscious choices to include plants that provide essential habitat for bees, bats, birds, butterflies, moths, beetles, and hummingbirds. What better time than during National Pollinator Week, June 15-21, 2015.
Initiated and managed by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, National Pollinator Week was unanimously approved and designated by the U.S. Senate in 2007. Each year since, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture has signed the proclamation in an effort to address the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations.
Worldwide there is evidence that pollinating animals have suffered from loss of habitat, pesticide misuse, competition from invasive species, disease, and parasites. Many pollinators are federally “listed species”, meaning that there is documented information confirming the disappearance and/or significant population reduction in natural areas. The United States has lost over 50% of its managed honeybee colonies over the past ten years. The European Union has been so concerned that they invested over $20 million investigating the status of pollinators in Europe.
Pollinator health affects everyone. Worldwide, roughly 1,000 plants grown for food, beverages, fibers, spices, and medicines need to be pollinated by animals in order to produce the goods on which we depend. Food and beverages produced with the help of pollinators include: apples, blueberries, chocolate, coffee, melons, peaches, potatoes, pumpkins, vanilla, almonds, and tequila. In the U.S., pollination by honey bees, native bees, and other insects produces $40 billion worth of products annually.
The native plants that can be identified and preserved or introduced include trees, shrubs, vines and perennials. Some of them include: Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis), Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), Passionflower (Passiflora spp.), Coreopsis (Coreopsis spp.), Goldenrod (Solidago spp.), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), and Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa). Simply identifying and avoiding damaging many of the existing native plants will allow anyone to provide important homes and food for many different pollinating animals. During National Pollinator Week S.H.A.R.E. your space.
For additional information:
UF Native Buzz
Gardening for Pollinators
Minimizing Honey Bee Exposure to Pesticides
The Xerces Society
by Les Harrison | May 19, 2015
Uninvited guests can sometimes be fun and entertaining, bringing spontaneity to an otherwise predictable schedule. Sometimes the surprise guest is just an unpleasant distraction with no redeeming virtues.
The unanticipated knock on the door can bring both scenarios to mind. Almost everyone has an enjoyable cousin who regales listeners with amusing tales, and picks up the check for dinner.
Likewise, there are those potential callers with parasitic qualities, the appetite of a market hog, and initiative of a sloth. The Eastern Tent Caterpillar is one such visitor in north Florida.
These native caterpillars build large, thick nests on the branch forks and crotches of many kinds of trees, seeming to always choose the prized specimens highly valued by the homeowner. The silky tent shaped nests are easy to see and identity in host trees.
The caterpillars emerging in the spring of 2015 were laid in the spring of 2014. The adult moth lays her eggs in a single batch in May to July in the panhandle. There are 200 to 300 eggs laid in the group.
The mass of eggs are shiny, reddish-brown and look like dried foam. They are ordinarily about six inches back from the tip of a thin twig in host tree.
In approximately three weeks the eggs contain fully formed caterpillars, but the small caterpillars remain in the eggs until the following spring.
In late-February to mid-March they chew their way through their egg shells ready to eat their host tree that is entering the spring budding period with plentiful tender vegetation.
The voracious larvae immediately infest and, if in sufficient numbers, defoliate plum, cherry and many others. Normally the trees recover after a few weeks, but weakened or diseased trees may die.
When not eating, the newly hatched caterpillars construct their silk tent. The caterpillars use a pheromone trail to guild them back home when foraging is done.
A social insect, the eastern tent caterpillars congregate at their specific tent during the night and in rainy weather, expanding it to accommodate their growing size. These caterpillars do not feed within their nests.
The caterpillars disperse to colonize new areas when maturity is reached. They construct cocoons in protected places once they have sufficiently scattered.
Birds are not attracted to these hairy caterpillars. If they have a heavy concentration of black cherry leaves in their diet, the caterpillars will have a bitter acrid taste.
Parasitic wasps and weather are the two most common causes of caterpillar death. These caterpillars are especially susceptible to cold weather once they have emerged from their eggs.
About two weeks later, an adult moth emerges to begin the process again. Mating and egg laying commonly occur within 24 hours of the moths emerging from their cocoons
These brown moths are nocturnal and are seen flying only at night. They are an inch to two inches wingtip to wingtip at maturity and easy to overlook.
Tent Caterpillars are quick to hatch and eat their way through home landscapes.
Unfortunately, once they arrive for a visit they always overstay their welcome.
Contact your local UF/IFAS County Extension Office to learn more about Eastern Tent Caterpillars in north Florida.
Air potato (Dioscores bulbifera) is a perennial, herbaceous self-twining vine that can grow over 60 feet in length, enabling it to climb over and smother many native plants. The Florida Exotic Plant Pest Council (FLEPPC) lists air potato as a Category 1 invasive plant, which means that it has disrupted natural communities and ecological functions by displacing native plant species.
The female air potato leaf beetle lays an average of 1,200 eggs, which develop into larvae in about four days. The young beetles skeletonize the air potato leaves for the next eight days and then pupate into foam-like cocoons. Clumps of cocoons fall to the ground and the adult beetles emerge 13 to 16 days later. There can be a new generation of air potato leaf beetle every month while the weather is warm. For the winter, the adults hide in leaf litter and wait for spring.
