by Ray Bodrey | Jun 29, 2022
A watering tin and gardening gloves at a home garden.
Spending time gardening in the summer months can be difficult, especially in the Florida Panhandle. The brutally high temperatures and sometimes intensive humidity can make gardening seem unbearable. However, for those brave outdoor enthusiasts, there are always things to do around the homestead when it comes to vegetable gardening, landscape shrubs and lawn care.
Warm season vegetable gardening at this point becomes an uphill battle for some crops, with this being peak time for both insect and disease problems to occur. However, if you planted early enough, much of your harvest is probably in the safe zone. Scouting is key to prevent any major pest damage. Be sure to scout several times a week during these hot, summer days.
Shifting gears, the warm season is a good time to take extra special care of plants such as, azaleas and camellias, while they are establishing flower buds for the next bloom. A lack of water, fertilizer and pest detection and prevention can all certainly play a role in the following season’s flower production. Summer annuals always provide quick and easy color. Remember to feed established annuals with a complete fertilizer and remove faded blooms along the way. Water annuals well during hot, dry periods and control major annual pests to insure good production.
Finally, lawn maintenance is a need for many homeowners during this time of year. Almost all highly successful herbicides are no longer recommended at this point, as many will burn the turfgrass at temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on the weed pest and type of turfgrass, most likely the best way to control weeds in your lawn is to wait until cooler fall temperature to treat. Keeping good cultural practices this time of year will help in maintaining a healthy lawn and reduce pest pressure. Be sure to water lawns thoroughly when needed by applying one to three quarters of an inch of water weekly, depending on rainfall. Be sure to keep in mind mower height/frequency, as this is critical in keeping your lawn healthy. As stated in the “Mowing Your Florida Lawn” UF/IFAS EDIS publication, mow often enough so that no more than 1/3 of the blade height is removed per mowing. For example, if your St. Augustinegrass lawn is mowed at a height of 4 inches, it should be mowed before it grows to a height above 6 inches. It is important to always leave as much leaf surface as possible so that photosynthesis can occur, particularly in a grass that is subject to environmental or site stresses.
Unfortunately, it is chinch bug time again. Chinch bugs are prone to feed on St. Augustine lawns during hot, dry weather and may cause serious damage if not controlled. Damage usually occurs as a patch with a brown, dead center and yellowish margin. It seems chinch bugs get the blame, and often unjustly, for everything. Consult with your local county extension office to be sure the damage is not due to other reasons.
For more information, please contact your local county extension office.
Supporting information for this article can be found in the UF/IFAS EDIS publications/websites below:
Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/VH021
North Florida Gardening Calendar: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ep451#SECTION_7
Lawn Maintenance: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/entity/topic/lawn_care
Mowing Your Florida Lawn: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/LH028
UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution.
by Matt Lollar | Jul 30, 2020
On a daily basis, it is not unusual for our Extension Office to get calls, emails, and walk-ins with questions about insect identification. Sometimes we even get questions about imaginary insects! The overwhelming opinion by our clientele is that the insects in question are harmful to their landscapes and gardens. This is not always the case since there are more than 100,000 species of insects found in the United States, but less than 1% are harmful.
Recently I received a call about an abundance of bugs in a client’s newly installed sod. He was concerned that the insects were taking over his yard. Luckily, he was able to submit some good quality photos so the University of Florida/IFAS Extension Service could help him identify the insects.
An adult ground beetle (Mochtherus tetraspilotus). Photo Credit: Michael C. Thomas, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
The photos were sent to a University of Florida Entomologist for identification verification. It turns out the insects were ground beetles (family Carabidae). Adult ground beetles are slender and range between 1/4″ and 3/8″ in length. Their head and thorax are much narrower than their abdomens. Ground beetles are beneficial insects that feed on moth eggs and larvae. They are known predators of soybean loopers, cabbage loopers, and velvetbean caterpillars. It is suspected that the beetles found by the client came from the sod farm and were living in the thatch layer of the sod. They were possibly feeding on sod webworms or other moth larvae.
Accurate identification is the first step of integrated pest management (IPM). In this case, the insect found wasn’t a pest at all. If you need help identifying an insect, feel free to contact your local Extension Agent. For more information on beneficial insects, visit these publications found at edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
by Matt Lollar | Nov 20, 2017
Sometimes you don’t realize a tree is dying until it is dead. A few weeks ago, we got a call from a client who said he had insects killing his trees. Before having someone drive out to the property, our Master Gardener volunteer recommended that the client bring in some of the insects for us to take a look. It turned out the insects invading his pine tree were a type of longhorned beetle, but more specimens were required for identification. A site visit soon ensued.
There were a number of pine trees on the property, however only one was infested with the insects in question. Upon closer investigation, we noticed a number of different sized holes in the tree. The larger holes are nearly the size of a dime.
Arrowhead borer damage on a pine tree. Photo Credit: University of Florida/IFAS Extension.
It turns out the insects making the larger holes are a type of longhorned beetle known as an arrowhead borer (Xylotrechus sagittatus). The borers are brown to black in color with a reddish hue. They are moderately hairy and some specimens contain arrowhead markings pointing toward their heads. Adults feed on the bark of damaged or fire-killed pines. The adults are attracted to lights and may be mistaken for crickets because they run very fast. Eggs are laid in bark and larvae feed on sapwood, then tunnel deeper, often tunneling within a single annual ring. The borers pupate inside the tree and the newly emerged adults chew their way out.
Arrowhead Borer. Photo Credit: Tom Murray bugguide.net.
Given the fact that arrowhead borers are attracted to dead or dying trees, the killer of this particular tree is still in question. The smaller holes in the bark picture above were created by a much smaller beetle, but we were unable to get a specimen. We did see a couple of these beetles running around when we dug deeper into the bark. The small beetles that we saw closely resembled a type of Ips engraver beetle. Beetles in this genus have been known to kill trees, but most likely they weren’t the culprits either. Based on the overall appearance of the tree and the fact that other trees in the area were not infested with beetles, it is believed the tree was killed by other means. The tree was likely struck by lightening or suffered from poor genetics because it did not have a good form for a pine tree.
If you have a questionable looking tree on your property or if you have insects you would like identified, please feel free to stop by your local Extension Office and ask a Master Gardener!
