A way to enjoy your Halloween pumpkins for more than a week is to scrape the design into the skin of the pumpkin. The white and orange contrast still allows for the design to shine through. Plus you will not have a rotting squash sitting on your front porch. Just make sure you do not cut all the way through. For design ideas, trace leaves or Halloween cookie cutters on to the face and carve out with a ribbon tool.
10. Ticks crawl up Ticks don't jump, fly, or drop from trees onto your head and back. If you find one attached there, it most likely latched onto your foot or leg and crawled up over your entire body.
9. All ticks (including deer ticks) come in small, medium and large sizes
8. Ticks can be active even in the winter That's right! Deer Ticks in particular are not killed by freezing temperatures, and will be active any winter day that the ground is not snow-covered or frozen.
We get quite a few questions about watering trees in the winter. It is important that with new plantings that you are aware that they will still need moisture in the winter months. Most of the time Mother Nature helps us out, i.e. snow, ice and rain. But there are times when supplemental water is needed. Here are some tips from the Kansas State Extension Office to help out:
Winter Watering:
Emerald Ash Borer found in Iowa along the banks of the Mississippi river in Allamakee County. This is the first confirmed case of the EAB in Iowa. This pest is native of to Eastern Asia and was first detected in near Detroit, Michigan in 2002. The pest kills all species of Ash trees at a devastating rate. The are approximately 80 million Ash trees in Iowa that are at a severe risk to be infested and possibly killed by the Emerald Ash Borer.
Anthracnose is a common fungal disease that affects many varieties in Kansas each year. Some affected trees are: Maple, Ash, Sycamore, Elm, Oak, Walnut and Cottonwood. Many of these diseases develop in the spring and have similar leaf symptoms (blotchy leaf spots), but the common thread to all anthracnose diseases is the fact that the fungi which cause them produce similar, cup-like fruiting structures (spore-producing structures) called acervuli. These fungi also are host specific.
It is time to spray Pines for tip and needle blight diseases. The target time to spray is when the candles or shoots (new growth) begin to elongate which is normally in Late April-May. However, due to the unseasonably warm winter and spring, they are elongating right now. Timing of fungicide sprays are imperative to control the disease. If the spraying is done too early or too late, it is useless. We recommend a series of 2-3 sprays approx. 14-21 days apart. Please call us if you have any questions.
Good Morning- Last week I noticed rose aphids for the first time on one of our properties. Aphids are easily controlled with insecticides or a sharp spray of water on the bush to knock them off the plant. Rose aphids are soft bodied insects approx. 1/4" in size and will vary in color from green to red.
This season is becoming a who's who of ornamental pests, especially aphids or every shape, size and variety. A couple weeks ago we blogged about aphids on daylilies and roses. Today I found Ash Curl aphids in full force completely devestating new growth. The whooly aphid is also a problem on apples, sumac and pyracantha. Please keep a look out. Pyrethroids and many other insecticides will take care of these. Please give us a call if you're seeing any problems.
We predicted a rough year for insects due to the lack of winter we had this year, but we had no idea that insects would be quite as bad as they've been this year. Spider mites are very active right now (approx.
Courtesy of the Kansas City Star-
"The Missouri Department of Agriculture officially confirmed Wednesday that the emerald ash borer, an insect native to Asia that feeds on and kills ash trees, has been found in Platte County.
Officials had been watching for its arrival ever since the emerald ash borer was found in southeast Missouri in 2008.
Wednesday’s announcement could be a slow-moving death sentence for many ash trees in the metro area.
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