Galls
Just For Fun May 9, 2021
Today I am going to talk about insect galls. I’ve gotten several questions from people that have seen something strange looking growing on their plant, and they wanted to know what it is. Galls can make a leaf look alien, but they rarely harm the tree. Let’s talk about some of them, what causes galls, and the damage that they do to a plant.
Insects usually cause galls. They look like an extra growth or tumor on the plant. They can take a variety of colors and shapes. Use of pesticides is not recommended in most cases to treat galls. Most pesticides will be ineffective because the insect or disease causing the gall is inside the plant.
Oak apple galls are somewhat common. These galls form on oak trees. They look like round balls that are attached to the oak leaves. They start out green, but turn brown, and are about half an inch to 2 inches in diameter. Oak apple wasps cause these galls. Oak apple wasps are really small wasps. These small wasps are not dangerous to people and won’t hurt you. Inside the gall is a single wasp larva. Once the larva emerges the gall will turn brown, and you can probably see the hole where it emerged, if the gall is still intact.
Azalea leaf gall is another fairly common gall. This one is not caused by an insect, but is a fungal disease. The disease overwinters inside the plant. Then in the spring and summer, you’ll start to see whitish swollen tissue appearing. That tissue has spores that can be moved to other leaves or plants by rain or wind. Fungicides are not an effective way to treat azalea leaf gall. If you see one of these galls, just pick it off and throw it in the trash, which will reduce its spread. Azalea leaf gall can also infect rhododendrons.
Maples can have a couple of different types of galls. One of those is called maple eyespot gall. A midge causes it. A midge is a really small insect. These insects will lay their eggs on the underside of leaves. The eggs hatch and the larvae feed on the leaf from inside the gall. The hormones that the midge injects into the leaf causes a dark red ring to form that has a yellow inner ring and a dark red center. The baby midge will then drop to the ground and finish growing into an adult. These galls rarely do real damage to the tree. Using an insecticide to treat is not recommended because the midge is protected inside the gall.
One type of gall that is problematic for farmers is phylloxera. This louse like insect will feed on roots, which causes roots to swell and die. One of their favorite plants to feed on is grape. Nowadays grapevines are grafted onto a rootstock that is resistant to phylloxera insects. Phylloxera is native to North America, so our native grapes like muscadine and fox grape are resistant to it. However, European grapes are not. In the mid 1800s, some American vines were shipped to Europe that were infected with phylloxera. The arrival of phylloxera in Europe and other countries around the world nearly destroyed the winemaking industry. For the vineyards that did not die, they had to rip out their vines and replace them with ones that were grafted onto resistant, American rootstock.
If you have questions about galls contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected].
Buttercup (Bittercup) Control
Just For Fun May 2, 2021
Buttercup is a longstanding problem for many pastures. Fields of yellow can be beautiful to look at when driving down the highway, but large populations of buttercup creates problems for livestock that are trying to forage. Let’s talk about these weeds and what can be done to control them in pastures and hayfields.
There are several different common names for buttercup. I’ve heard folks call it bittercup. It has a bitter taste that makes livestock not want to eat it. I’ve also heard it called bitter sneezeweed. That is a common name for a different plant that also has yellow flowers. The scientific name for buttercup is Ranunculus. There are actually different species of Ranunculus. Some of them are ornamental flowers that we like to see and grow. The plant that I am referring to has small yellow flowers that range in size from dime to quarter sized. The flowers have a glossy look to them. For most species of buttercup, you’ll see three leaves coming out of one spot. Each of those leaves will have three lobes on it. Generally, if you see those groups of three, that’s a good indicator that it’s buttercup. Some other plants like clover also have groups of three, but clover’s leaves don’t have lobes in groups of three on them.
So let’s talk about how to control it. There are three ways to control it. Growing a good stand of grass that outcompetes the weeds, mowing buttercup before it flowers, or spraying it with herbicide before it flowers.
Growing a healthy stand of grass that is able to outcompete weeds requires regular fertilizer applications, checking soil pH and adding lime as necessary, and managing the number of cattle grazing a field. Fields that are overgrazed will be more prone to weeds growing. Heavily grazed grass won’t be able to grow back as quickly because its energy storage down in the roots is depleted. If grass is growing healthily, it will be able to outcompete many weeds, buttercup included.
Mowing is another option for buttercup control. Buttercup is a short-lived perennial. If you mow before it flowers, you eliminate the seed production for that plant. This is a strategy that takes several years to become fully effective.
In some cases, forage stand management and mowing are not going to be enough and an herbicide must be used to effectively control buttercup. 2,4-D or an herbicide containing 2,4-D is the best option. Because buttercup is a perennial, a pre-emergent like Prowl, won’t be effective. For the 2,4-D to be effective the timing of the application is critical. If you see buttercup flowers, it’s too late. The 2,4-D application must be done when the buttercup plant is still small. Ideally, you want daytime temperatures to be 50 for two or three consecutive days. 2,4-D does have haying and grazing restrictions. Generally, you must wait 30 days before haying after spraying and wait 14 days before grazing lactating dairy animals. As always, follow the label.
A common weed that may be confused with buttercup is field mustard. Field mustard also has yellow flowers. Field mustard is an annual plant that usually flowers before buttercup. Because it is annual you can also use pre-emergent herbicides on it. Like buttercup, field mustard is not good for livestock to eat.
If you have questions about buttercup, identification, or control contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected].
Pollinator Gardening
Just For Fun April 11, 2021
We all know the benefits of pollinators. Many of the crops that we grow would not be possible without pollinators. The State Botanical Garden of Georgia has a program where they designate four plants as the pollinator plants of the year. All four are native plants. The goal is to get more nurseries growing these pollinators and to encourage people to plant them in their gardens. Let’s go through each of one and give a brief plant profile on them.
False rosemary is the first pollinator plant of the year. It is a perennial. It does look like rosemary, but the leaves have a minty smell when crushed. They have dainty light purple flowers that bloom in the spring. Unfortunately, for us, this plant does not do well, as it needs a warmer climate than what we have in the mountains. It is hardy to USDA zone 8a; we are in zones 6a-7, depending on your elevation.
Sweet pepperbush is great plant that will grow in our area. It is native to the Eastern US. It blooms in the summer and grows to be 4-8 feet tall. There are some dwarf cultivars of it available too. It has white blooms that attract birds, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It can take part shade, which is good for our area, as we have many trees and lots of shade. It doesn’t have many problems with disease or insects. It does have a cousin called the mountain pepperbush that can grow in the North Georgia Mountains. The mountain pepperbush grows to be 12-20 feet tall.
Butterfly weed is a plant that every pollinator garden should have. It is our native milkweed. You can see it blooming along the side of the road during the summer. It has bright orange clusters of small flowers. It attracts butterflies and native bees. This one is not as tall, only growing to be 1-2 feet tall. I don’t recommend moving from the roadside to your house, because native plants don’t like to be transplanted, especially after bloom. You can purchase this from local nurseries. It likes to be grown in full sun.
The last plant is downy goldenrod. It’s a fall bloomer and grows 1-3 feet tall. It’s a great plant for native bees and other pollinators. There are a number of different species of goldenrod. We start to see a lot of goldenrod bloom at the end of August and into September. Many beekeepers will stop collecting honey from bees once goldenrod starts to bloom. Goldenrod honey is not as marketable, and by not collecting honey, it gives the bees a chance to build up their stores for winter.
Planting a pollinator garden is beneficial to your garden and to the pollinators. If you have questions about pollinator gardening contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected]
I will be hosting a raised garden bed program at Hamilton Garden on April 22 at 10 am. There will be an educational portion of the program that everyone is welcome to attend. I will also have some 4×4 ft. raised beds available for people to purchase for $40. To reserve your raised bed call 706-439-6030 and I will put you down.
Cedar-Apple Rust
Just For Fun March 28, 2021
Cedar-apple rust is a common disease in our area. If you have apple trees you have probably seen it before. It is an unusual disease in that it alternates between hosts. Let’s talk about this disease so that you can learn how to identify and control it.
Cedar-apple rust (CAR) is from the Pucciniaceae family. Members of this family need more than one host to complete their life cycle. Some other diseases in this family are black stem rust of wheat, soybean rust, and white pine blister rust. Apple trees that are heavily infested with CAR will see reduced yield and blemished fruit. It can also weaken and kill eastern red cedar is the infection is severe enough, but this is rare. Red cedar is the primary alternate host for CAR. On apple trees, the infection creates orange-yellowish spots. On cedar trees, you will see gelatinous masses form that are bright orange. You also see what are called telial horns that grow out of the mass. To me these masses look like they are not from this earth. If the tree is heavily infected it might look like little Christmas decorations hanging from the limbs.
These masses will start to appear on cedar and juniper trees about seven months after infection and turn gelatinous 18 months after infection. The horns begin to appear, but if the weather is dry, they will dry out quickly, and then swell back out after a rain. The horns release spores to infect apple trees. The masses on the cedar tree will dry up and remain on the tree for about another year, but they are dead at that point. The spores released can only infect plants from the rose family, like apple trees, not more cedar trees. The spores released can travel 2 or 3 miles on the wind to infect an apple tree. When they land on an apple tree, they germinate and create the orange spot. These spots release a sticky liquid to attract insects. As the insects pick up the sticky liquid they transport spermatia from one infection to the next, which fertilizes the disease. The disease then grows through the leaf and creates new spores on the bottom side that are blown back to a cedar tree to start the cycle all over again.
Spraying to control this disease on cedar trees is not recommended. CAR will rarely kill cedar trees. You can prune out galls to slow its spread. If you see this disease on a cedar tree, it may be best simply to co-exist with the disease, as it does little damage to the cedar. On apple trees there are some other management options. It will cause apple trees to lose their leaves and infects the fruit. Captan and myclobutanil can both be used preventatively against CAR. If you have cedar trees right next to your apple trees you might consider removing them. But keep in mind that the spores can travel a couple of miles from cedar trees, so even if you remove all the cedar trees that you can see, you can still get this disease because we have a lot of cedar trees around.
Cedar-quince rust looks similar to CAR, but it infects pear trees instead of apple. This disease also forms gelatinous masses along its branches instead of balls like CAR.
If you have questions about cedar-apple rust contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected].
Cicada
Just For Fun March 14, 2021
I’m sure that by now a lot of people have heard about the cicadas that are due to emerge this year. Because this will be a once 17 years type of event, I wanted to talk about it. Let’s talk about what they look like, what they eat, and any other facts you might need to know about cicadas.
Adult cicadas are a winged insect that grows to be about 2.5 inches long. They sometimes get confused with locusts because people associate them both with coming in waves or plagues. Cicadas are not nearly as destructive as locusts. Their bodies are black with some orange stripes down the wings.
Cicadas are divided into different broods. The brood coming out this year is brood X (10). Some broods are on a 13-year cycle, and the brood like what we’re this year every 17 years. 12 broods that emerge every 17 years and 3 broods emerge every 13 years. Brood X is one of the most widespread as there will be appearances from the east coast to the Mississippi River and from New York down to Georgia.
We get cicadas every year, as there are also annual cicadas that emerge. These annual cicadas actually live 2-5 years, so they are annual in the sense that they reappear annually. This brood of cicadas is projected to have as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre. That brings the total population to the trillions. These cicadas even though they only emerge for a few weeks have been living underneath us for the past 17 years. Scientists don’t know why 17 is the magic number. The cicadas will even wait a couple of days together if the weather is rainy. Underground they feed on tree roots. The damage that they cause is minimal. Once they are emerged, the damage that they do to plants is mostly cosmetic. I do not recommend spraying any pesticides for them. There will be so many of them that it will be impossible to control them with the use of pesticides. Their mouthpart is a piercing-sucking one. It’s designed like a straw so that they can slurp plant juices. This means that they can’t really bite you, but they might stick you if you antagonize them.
The main issue with cicadas is going to be the amount of noise that they create. In groups, their sound can reach 100 decibels. This is the same as a jet flyover at 1000 feet or a helicopter at 100 feet. The males trying to attract a female to mate create this noise. After mating, the female will lay her eggs inside the trees. If young trees are completely swarmed it can damage them. You can use a net to protect them. These eggs will hatch in 6-10 weeks. The nymphs fall to the ground and burrow in, starting the 17-year cycle over again.
Cicadas will begin to emerge when soil temperatures reach 64 degrees. We typically start to hit those temperatures the end of April. Cicadas do provide some benefits. The nymphs in the soil burrow and create channels for roots. They are a source of food for a lot of wildlife like trout and wild turkeys. Moles also feast on the nymphs that are underground.
If you have questions about the cicadas contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected].
Plant It?
Just For Fun February 21, 2021
When to plant? That is a big question. We are still a ways off from warmer weather. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t start thinking about the garden. Winter is a great time to go ahead and start planning your garden and picking up seeds. Let’s talk a bit about planting calendars and when to get started on that garden.
Soil temperature should be our guide for when we plant. Ideally, for warm-season vegetables we want the soil temperature to be at least 65 degrees. Some examples of warm-season vegetables are tomatoes, peppers, squash, and okra. Cool-season vegetables can be planted when soil temperatures have reached 50 degrees. Some examples of those are radishes, cabbage, collards, and kale.
Some crops like carrots, parsnips, beets, radish, turnips, and mustard do better from seed. However, for most other vegetables using transplants is a great way for your garden to get a head start. There are a few benefits to using transplants. One is spacing. Not every seed that you plant is going to come up. For most plants, if we have good quality seed we hope to get at least 85% germination. If you space out the seeds in your garden and some of them don’t germinate you’ll have wasted space. Using transplants, you know that you’ll have a live plant in every spot. Another reason is weed control. A transplant that is already up and growing with a developed root system will be able to compete against weeds for sunlight, water, and nutrients better than a plant growing from seed. You’ll also put yourself a little ahead of the game.
There are two ways to get transplants. The first is the easiest. Go to one of the garden centers or nurseries around here and buy them. The second option is to grow them yourself. This is not too difficult to do, and it gives you a fun project to do inside while it’s still cold outside. The things that you’ll need are seeds, growing media, and a grow container or tray. Fill the container with the growing media (a mixture of peat moss, sand, and loamy soil). Place one or two seeds in each cell of the tray, and then cover it very lightly with a little bit of soil. The timing of seeding is important. Tomatoes take 5 to 7 weeks before they’re ready. Squash only takes 2 to 3. Peppers take 7 to 9 weeks. So pick your target planting date and back up from there to determine when you need to start transplants. I usually recommend planting outside in mid-May for warm-season vegetables. Most seeds will need to be at least 70 degrees to germinate. You can purchase a heating pad to put your seed trays on to reach this temperature. Once the plant has germinated, you will need a way to provide light for it. A south-facing window won’t provide enough light and will need to be supplemented. Supplement with fluorescent or LEDs. Leave the bulbs on for 16 hours a day. You can plug the light into a timer to help keep track.
If you have questions about when to plant or starting your own plants you can contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected].
Perennial Pals: Gardening and Crops in a Fall Garden
Just For Fun, Lifestyle, Tastebuds August 9, 2020
(Article and photo by Jacob Williams in conjunction with Towns-Union Master Gardener Association and the UGA Extension Office)
Do you usually have a fall garden? Now is the time to start thinking about one. There are some benefits to having a fall garden that we’ll get in to. Let’s talk about what vegetable crops and cover crops are an option for a fall garden and how to start your fall garden.
Clovers in a pot
Cover crops are planted in the fall and grow throughout the winter into early spring. Cover crops are beneficial to soil health and are often used in organic production. I like to think of the soil as a muscle in the body. If you work a muscle too hard or with only one exercise then you may injure the muscle by straining it or even tearing it. However, by diversifying your exercises and making sure that you’re eating properly for muscle growth you can grow stronger. Soil also requires development over time, and cover crops can help with that. Common crops are clovers and cereal crops like cereal rye, black oats, and wheat. Come springtime they can be tilled into the soil or laid down so that you can plant into them. Planting cover crops can help to develop organic matter in the soil, reduce erosion, suppress weeds, and conserve soil moisture. Around Labor Day is the ideal time to plant cover crops in our area.
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, turnips, radishes, spinach, lettuce, beets, and onions are some good options for a fall garden. For fall gardens it is important to use mulch to protect the plants from the frost. You may need to get another soil test done on your garden to see if you need to add any fertilizer for the coming crop. Ideally, you want the plants to have 50 – 60 days to mature before the first frost. Our average first frost date is mid-October. That makes mid-August a good time to plant.
Violas
There are a couple of benefits to planting in the fall that you don’t see in the summer. One of these is there are fewer insect pests around. That means you won’t need to spray as many insecticides. If you are trying to grow your garden organically that is a very good thing! There will also be fewer diseases that you have to contend with in the fall. Diseases like hot, humid conditions. As the temperature drops in the coming months diseases will become less and less of a problem. Winter weeds can still be a problem but they are not as much of a pest as summertime weeds. Use mulch to suppress weeds.
Pansies and violas are an option for flowering plants that will last through the winter and keep their flowers. Plant pansies mid-September once the temperatures have cooled down.
Gardening in the spring means working through diseases and insects. In the fall the biggest challenge will be from the temperature. As the temperature drops rapidly selecting varieties of crops that can stand the cold will be important. It can be extremely rewarding to see green growing around your house after everything else has turned brown.
If you have any questions about growing your fall garden contact your County Extension Office or email me at [email protected].
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Discover Dahlonega: When you’re stuck at home – Gardening tips from the experts
Arts & Entertainment, Lifestyle July 19, 2020
(Article by Courtney Randolph in conjunction with the Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber and Visitors Bureau)
Feeling a bit restless, and looking for something to do? We sure do love a good DIY, especially when it involves some vitamin D! Learn how to build your own DIY garden from JoAnn Goldenburg, owner of the Dahlonega Butterfly Farm. If vegetable gardens and medicinal plants are more your thing, learn some tips from one of our favorite doctors, Dr. Whitfield.
Follow these steps to build a thriving butterfly destination and watch the colorful visitors arrive!
What Are Host Plants? Do I Need Them?
Photo: The Dahlonega Butterfly Farm
“HOST PLANTS are the plants where the female butterflies lay their eggs and where the caterpillars forage. Host plants aren’t always the prettiest plants in the garden but they’ll definitely bring butterflies into your yard. A few common host plants include Milkweed for the Monarchs, Parsley & Fennel for the Black Swallowtails, and Passion Vine for the Gulf Fritillary (to name a few). Keep this in mind; caterpillars eat a lot! So if you want to enjoy raising your own caterpillars – make sure to plant several host plants.”
What are “nectar plants” and how do I choose which one to plant?
Photo: The Dahlonega Butterfly Farm
NECTAR PLANTS support adult butterflies (and other beneficial insects) with their sweet nectar and add beautiful seasonal color to your garden. It’s a good idea to have a variety of nectar plants which bloom throughout the summer to give your butterflies a regular source of food. There are hundreds of nectar plants to choose from but you’ll want to pick the right plants based on your zone and location. North Georgia is in Zone 7a, which is great for growing Perennial Lantana, Verbena, Coreopsis, Zinnias, Black-Eyed Susan, and Buddlei. For a seasonal pop of color you can also add annuals, Begonias, Pansies, Impatiens and Geraniums. And don’t forget the shrubs and trees; Butterflies need a safe place to rest and sleep.
How To Create a Butterfly Garden
Photo: The Dahlonega Butterfly Farm
A SUNNY SPOT and a small water puddle are also important to complete your butterfly habitat. Butterflies love to soak up the “sun” because they’re cold blooded and need the heat to fly. Butterflies need a water source to stay hydrated.. You can try adding a shallow dish to your garden with water or fruit juice. As a matter of fact, some butterflies prefer fruits and will be happy to feed on rotting bananas, oranges, mangoes or even dung. Last but not least; try to eliminate or reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides. Chemicals aren’t safe for butterflies, pets, or humans. Butterflies need a healthy environment and so do we!”
Top Photo provided by instagram account user, @i_shoot_people77
“Most of us find “sheltering in place” something to be endured until the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Plants, on the other hand, are of course happy to stay put and flourish in dirt, no less. And like most of us, they do even better when they are surrounded by nurturing companions, hence the gardening practice of companion planting.
Now that most of us are expected to spend most of our time at home, an escape to the garden for exercise and sun is a logical stress reliever to being home bound. So, what better time than this spring planting season to add to our gardening “know how”?
To that end, I would like to share some of my favorite gardening tips, especially for our first-time gardeners. So, let’s talk about frost dates, using planting calendars, and companion planting techniques which may help you grow a beautiful and productive garden.”
“Frost dates can be confusing. Gardeners talk about the last “hard” or “killing” frosts and “light” frosts. A frost date is the average date of the first or last light freeze that occurs in spring or fall. Dave’s Garden website tells us that, on average, our risk of frost in Dahlonega is from October 27 through April 10. And, almost certainly, we will receive frost from November 14 through March 21. We are almost guaranteed not to get frost from May 1 through October 9. Our frost-free growing season is about 200 days. I try to be relatively conservative with frost dates and use March 30 as the last killing frost date and May 15 as the last average light frost date in Dahlonega. There will be a lot of variation in these reported dates due to local weather, microclimates or topography, but the conservative dates seem to work well for me.”
“These are wonderful slide rule type planners that you can use to enter the last frost date and learn when you should start seeds indoors and/or outdoors. They provide information such as recommended plants, dates to start indoor seeds and the types of seeds to start, first outdoor planting dates, and expected harvest dates. You can also find programs on line to help you develop and save your own gardening data.
My first garden planner was called “Clyde’s Garden Planner – Clyde’s Vegetable Planting Slide Chart” which I found on line. I also have a “Garden Vegetable Guide” that United Community Bank gave away a few years ago, and it provides data such as: how easy or challenging different seeds are to grow, when to start or plant them, planting depth, row width/ spacing between seeds, days to maturity, hardiness and type of soil. The University of Georgia has a fantastic web site you can easily access. Just google: Vegetable Garden Calendar, UGA Cooperative Extension.”
What Should I Plant? What is Companion Planting?
“Said to be part experience, part folklore, and part wishful thinking, most companion planting teachings are passed down by gardeners who experimented with different pairings of plants and had some success. The companion planting technique is the result of placing various crops close to each other so they symbiotically compliment each other leading to greater vigor, growth and often better flavor. Some companion plants are used to repel and deter insect pests and diseases. Companion planting also involves separating plants that are antagonistic to each other.
Companions for tomatoes include: amaranth, asparagus, basil, bean, borage, calendula, celery, chive, cleome, cosmos, cucumber, garlic, lemon balm, lettuce, marigold, mint, nasturtium, onion, parsley, peas, sage, stinging nettle, sow thistle, and squash. Amaranth may repel insects. Basil improves growth and flavor and repels mosquitoes and flies. Borage improves growth and flavor and repels tomato worms. Bee balm, chives, and parsley are reported to improve tomato health and flavor. Garlic repels red spider mites and garlic sprays help control late blight. Stinging nettle nearby improves taste, while sow thistle aids growth. Tomato antagonists include: cabbage and members of the Brassica family (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turin), corn, fennel, and mature dill plants.
“Some of my favorite resources on Companion Planting include: Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte and Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham. (My disclaimer: Contrary to popular belief, tomatoes and carrots may not have a symbiotic relationship. In fact there is some suggestion that tomato plants can stunt the growth of carrots.)
Read more of Discover Dahlonega on FYN’s SUNDAY EDITION! If you’re enjoying the Sunday Edition, then consider becoming a contributor with your own articles. If you have an article that needs highlighting send it to [email protected] to become a part of our growing community of feature news.
Perrenial Pals: Managing Fire Ants in the Garden
Fetching Featured, Just For Fun July 12, 2020
(Article and photo by Jacob Williams in conjunction with Towns-Union Master Gardener Association and the UGA Extension Office)
Fire ants are very common throughout Georgia. Thankfully, we don’t have as many in the mountains as they do south of us. However, once you experience a fire ant bite, you won’t ever forget it. Another problem with fire ants is that you rarely get just one bite. Fire ants were first reported in Georgia in the 1950s. They’ve been found all the way from North Carolina to Texas, and down to Florida. Let’s talk about fire ants and things that you can do to control them so that they don’t take over your lawn or pasture.
If you can manage to get an up-close look without being bitten and stung, you’ll see that fire ants have two nodes between their abdomen at the end of their body and the thorax in the middle of their body. Fire ants generally like to stay in open grassy areas.
Fire ants are most active when temperatures are between 70 and 85. In the fall fire ants are active because they are foraging for food. This makes fall the best time to treat them. Treatment during the spring and summer is also possible, but effective population control will be less likely. When it’s really hot during the summer time fire ants will burrow deeper into the ground, making them more difficult to treat. Treatments in the summer are best done in the morning or evening when it’s cooler.
Using a bait will be the most effective way of controlling fire ants. Amdro is the main ant bait that is used for fire ants. Broadcast the bait either over the mounds, or in a four-foot circle around each mound. It’s important to know that Amdro is not labelled for use in vegetable gardens. It has to be used in scenarios where the plants growing there are not going to be eaten. If a few mounds remain after seven to ten days, a follow up application of Orthene will be effective against those problematic mounds. Take a long stick and quickly put a hole in the center of the mound. Then fill the hole with insecticide to eliminate those mounds. When applying pesticides always make sure to read and follow the label.
Pouring about 3 gallons of boiling water onto a mound will sometimes eliminate the mound, if it is done in the morning when more ants are close to the soil surface. It is also possible to coerce fire ants to move from sensitive areas by continually knocking down their colonies.
I have also seen people using orange oil mixed with soap and other ingredients. This treatment is effective because it eats away the ant’s skin. However, it will also kill any other insects, grubs, or worms that are in its path. It could also strip away the outer layer of any roots that it meets.
There are not many biological controls for fire ants in the United States because they are an invasive species. Fire ants are native to South America and have many natural enemies there. Researchers have to be very careful about introducing a natural predator, because the effects of that introduced species are unknown on our ecosystem.
If you have any questions about fire ants and fire ant control, contact your County Extension Office or send me an email at [email protected].
If you’re enjoying the Sunday Edition, then consider becoming a contributor with your own articles. If you have an article that needs highlighting send it to [email protected] to become a part of our growing community of feature news.
While you’re home, help your Hemlocks
Just For Fun May 3, 2020
While many of you are sheltering at home, I hope you’re going outside every now and then to refresh yourself with
the sights, sounds, and smells of nature. Maybe you’re checking on the plants and wildlife around your home to see
how they’re faring this spring. And since we’ve just celebrated Earth Day, you may also be thinking about ways you
can help protect and improve our environment. So let me ask you to consider one very important component –
trees, and hemlock trees in particular.
Hemlocks, the native evergreen icon of the Appalachian region, play a vital role in preserving the natural beauty and
ecological health of our forests and waterways as well as the economic vitality of our communities. But millions of
hemlocks are dying because of an invasive insect, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, that sucks the starches and other
nutrients from the needles, causing the trees to defoliate. Recognizable by the presence of tiny white egg sacs on the
underside of the branches, the infestation is in all of north Georgia and the Atlanta area.
The good news is that the hemlocks, even if already infested, can be treated and saved, and spring is the best time to
do it. The process is safe, highly effective, economical (especially compared to the cost of losing these valuable
evergreens), and easy enough for most property owners to do. There are also several properly qualified
professionals who can help.
Save Georgia’s Hemlocks is a 100% volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of concerned citizens dedicated to
preserving, conserving, and restoring endangered hemlocks through education and charitable service. They can
provide easy-to-follow instructions or a list of qualified professionals for property owners, training for volunteers
who want to help on our public lands, and a wide range of opportunities for individuals and groups to put the spirit
of Earth Day into action.
To learn more, visit www.savegeorgiashemlocks.org or call the Hemlock Help Line SM 706-429-8010.