News Article for April 13, 2009:
To walk outside and see frost on the ground on the second week of April is surprising. It however reinforces the theory of waiting until mid April to fertilize lush plants and warm season grasses.
There is more news from the caterpillar invasion this week. I have seen buck moth caterpillars and have had reports of barefooted Easter egg hunters stepping on them -ouch!
Buck moth caterpillars are known to many of you as stinging caterpillars. Yes, the black spine covered caterpillars. Like the forest tent caterpillars we talked about last week, the buck moth caterpillars are emerging from eggs up in the tops of hardwood trees now. They will fall out of the trees and contact with them can be very painful.
The caterpillars we are seeing now are the product of the moths that were flying around in December. I saw a number of the moths while out hunting this past year. They deposited eggs in the tops of trees and those eggs are hatching now.
I have been a victim several times by not paying attention to the fact that once the caterpillars fall out of the trees they can be anywhere. I have stepped on them barefooted before daylight on the way to get the newspaper. (You don’t need coffee to wake you up after that experience.) I have also mowed under low lying branches and ran into them on the limbs (one more excuse not to cut the grass). I have known of people who have sat on them in their lawn furniture. (An inconvenient place to have help to treat the wound.) Total control of the caterpillar is almost impossible because they originate in the tops of tall trees. Putting aluminum foil around your trees will not help. If they get on your roses or other plants you can spray with Sevin, Orthene or a Bt. These will not give instant control but are effective. If you want instant revenge you will have to use a pyrethrin such as sprays with cyfluthrin or delltamethrin as the active ingredient.
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Another insect problem that you can prevent now is sooty mold. This is that ugly black crusty material that occurs in great frequency on the leaves of crape myrtles and many other woody ornamentals. I had some on my hibiscus just last week.
The sooty mold is a sign that you have insects feeding on the plant and the sooty mold is a secondary problem, although it is ugly. If you control the insects you will control the sooty mold. Sooty mold is actually a fungus that comes in to live on the high sugar secretions of the insects.
The crapes myrtles have a unique thin bark that makes for an easy remedy and prevention of insects and therefore sooty mold.
Use the insecticide acephate which is sold as a soluble powder under the name Orthene 75S or Acephate 75S. Mix 4 parts acephate to 1 part water and make a paste. Paint the paste around each trunk of your crape myrtle near the base of the tree. The band should be twice the diameter of the trunk. So if you have trunks that are 1 inch in diameter, you should paint a 2 inch band of the paste around each trunk.
Treat now to May 1st and again at the end of July to August 1st and you will get year long control.
For more information on these or related topics contact Kenny at 225-686-3020.