Gage County
1115 West Scott St.,
Beatrice NE 68310
Phone: (402) 223-1384
FAX: (402) 223-1370

News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

Fall Landscapes

BAGWORMS - Fall brings a blessed relief from bag worms feeding on red cedar and spruce trees in the landscape and the windbreak. What are they doing not. The larva in the bag were fully grown, the pupated and the male moths are in flight. The emerge from the small bags hanging on the trees and find a female moth who remain in the bags. They mate and the eggs are protected by the bag and the body of the female who will die in the early frosts. Unless you want to pick off all the bags and destroy them, you can relax until late June 2008 when the eggs will hatch and the new bags will form for the next generation.

TREE LEAVES - Many leaves are showing the wear of the summer season. Leaf problems this time of year on broadleaf trees are of small concern. They are going to color-up soon and head for the lawn and rain gutters. Some trees of concern are red leaf maples, ornamental pears, and ornamental plums. They suffered in the spring frost and a sign they are not fully recovered came in late August when there was a day when trees thinner leaves, and/or some lingering spring damage scorched quite badly. The tree was not able to get enough water to the leaves to keep them cool and damage occurred. Is this because of the thin leaves or the spring damage? We will know next spring. It is possible that some of these trees were hurt badly enough, that making through the winter will be a challenge.

DANDELIONS - Dandelions are perennial weeds. Should you control them now? My advice would be to wait a bit and give them the combination punch between Halloween and Thanksgiving. This is a great time for a winter fertilizer application. Use lawn fertilizer with 2,4-D Amine added (+2). You will get a great kill on the dandelions, even the ones which germinated in late September and October. At the same time the winter fertilizer application will help the grass winter better and give a gradual greenup in the spring which will carry through until the late April crabgrass/fertilizer application.

WINTER FRIENDS- Many homeowners will find they have winter friends who would like to move in for the winter. Start outside the home. There are numerous insecticide materials packaged at home and garden centers for application around the home along the foundation. Many of those are pre- packaged with application equipment attached making them easy to use. Applications made 3-4 times during the summer months including a fall application and emergency treatment when the thundering herd is at a peak at your home helps a good deal. Control is usually quite good for ants, spiders, crickets, millipedes, wood roaches, etc. Look for the active ingredient B-Cyfluthrin.
For those that get inside, I recommend a vacuum followed by removal of the contents outside or in a sealed plastic trash bag. Swatting beasts like multicolored lady beetles, clover mites or spouses leaves a stain. I just don't get excited about living with insecticide odors in the home. If they are necessary use them sparingly as spot treatments, read and follow label instructions carefully and clean treated areas a few days after the application. Take special care to avoid human food or pet food storage or preparation areas.

View other Gage County News Columns & News Letters: http://gage.unl.edu/news/news.htm

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