Tag: japanese beetle

Protect Your Landscape from Insect Pests

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Insect pests cause significant damage to gardens and landscapes. In our service area on Chicago’s North Shore and Southeastern Wisconsin, we see the evidence of this every day. Although not all insects are harmful, the damage potential from insect pests can be huge. In fact, insects cause more damage to your garden than any other type of pest.

Once established, the cost to get rid of insect pests can be significant. The resulting damage can ruin the appearance of your home landscape. So, be proactive! Keep a close eye on your plants and trees to prevent an infestation – look for signs of damage and disease. Plants that are stressed due to drought are especially susceptible to damage. Also, their growth can be adversely affected.

Insects can harm any part of a plant and at any stage of its development. In serious cases, pests may even kill plants. Sucking insects may transmit disease from infected plants to healthy plants. Even trees can be subject to harm and complete loss, due to insect pests. For example, the emerald ash borer has done significant damage in our area. The beetle has contributed to tree loss by eating the tissue under the tree bark.

Be vigilant in checking plants and taking action before things get out of control. Early detection and treatment can be the difference between saving and losing a prize specimen. Keep in mind that effective treatments, such as chemical insect sprays, may also harm or kill beneficial insects. To avoid this, it’s a good idea take advantage of expert resources:

  • Contact Chicago Botanic Garden’s Plant Information Service for helpful information and advice.
  • Invest in a bug ID book or visit the website links below to see photos and learn about insect pests.
  • Call us at Van Zelst for help in identifying and treating your garden for insect pests: 847-243-6587.

Get to Know these 3 Insect Pests

The number of pest species is large! Become familiar with our top 3 insect pests, so you can identify them and protect your plants from damage.

Two-spotted spider mite

Latin Name: Tetranychus urticae
Description: Small, tiny, wingless creature that is difficult to see without a hand lens or magnifying glass
Where they live: Undersides of leaves
Plants affected: Annuals, perennials, trees, and shrubs
Harm to the plant: Sucks the fluid from the leaves which creates small dots or specks – also creates a fine network of webs that cover stems and leaves
Discouraging damage: Keep plants well-watered – Chemical control only as last result
Spider Mites crawling on webs (Photo credit: R. Lopez).

Japanese Beetles

Latin Name: Popillia japonica
Description: Metallic green insects that emerge in July and feed for 4-6 weeks
Where they live: On plants, grubs live in grass
Plants affected: Over 300 types of plants
Harm to the plant: Chew on plants leaves and flower tissue, can create extensive damage and leaves will fall from the plants, grubs feed on the roots of grass causing brown patches
Discouraging damage: Hand pick the beetles or knock them into a bucket of soapy water – best to do this in the early morning
Japanese Beetle.

Aphids

Latin Name: Aphidoidea
Description: Small, soft-bodied insect – reproduces many times a year – easy to spot in clusters, usually wingless
Where they live: On plants
Plants affected: New succulent shoots, buds and leaves, perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees, vegetables
Harm to the plant: Leaves and stems can become yellow, distorted or curled – produce honeydew secretion which can cause growth of sooty mold (a harmless black fungus)
Discouraging damage: Spray plant with water to knock them off – insecticidal soap can be used with caution
Aphids.

Helpful Resources about Insect Pests

Identify Insect Pests and Protect Your Landscape

Insect pests cause significant damage to gardens and landscapes in our area. Be proactive – learn about insect pests, monitor your garden for unwanted visitors, and take action to prevent infestation and damage to your special landscape.

Call the experts at Van Zelst for information and assistance with insect pests: 847-243-6587.

Bugs and Garden Thugs

Posted on | by siteadmin

Pests large and small and how to protect your defenseless plants

Let’s face it, it can be a war zone out there for all those expensive plants we invest into our landscape beds to establish color, form and texture.  We are battling many factors working against us as gardeners.  There are many competitors, mostly in the form of weeds and then larger, more established plants in the landscape such as larger shrubs and shade trees, that are competing for available nutrients and water.  We are fighting soil conditions; pH levels, moisture content, soil compaction, microorganism activity and fungal growth that all may have an effect on how healthy a plant is going to be.  We are battling larger insects and airborne pests in the form of; larvae, ant, caterpillar, beetle, fly or moth, all of which have the ability to feed upon a plant’s susceptible parts and weaken it, allowing disease to become present. Finally, we have our larger predators to be concerned with, which consists mostly of 4 legged furry creatures such as rabbits, deer, skunk and other smaller mammals that are feeding directly on the plant, or digging for larvae in the ground and tearing up the surrounding landscape.

How to defend your garden from these pests.

So how do we best equip ourselves to go into battle against all of these plant killers?  We arm ourselves with not just tools, organics and chemicals, but with the knowledge to know when to dig, when to spread, when to spray and when to fortify your defenses.  A good offense is the best defense against most of these pests. I say that in reference to being proactive in maintenance practices so that none of these factors get too far out of control.

Weeds are one of the first things to pop up in your landscape beds and getting into those beds early after coming out of dormancy and physically removing the new shoots of weedy species before they spread is an important step in making sure your landscape plants are taking advantage of the available moisture and nutrients in the soil early in the growing season.  Application of a healthy layer of mulch will serve multiple benefits for you as well as your plants.  Mulch will help with soil moisture retention, and at the same time, give organic matter and micronutrients to the soil and thus the surrounding plants.  Mulch will help the caretaker of the garden by reducing the amount of new weed germination, cutting the amount of time needed to keep the landscape weed free.  Mulch also helps to balance a soil’s pH and gives a nice finished, consistent look to all of your landscape beds.

Fighting naturally occurring insects  can be a challenging task because of the essential element of timing involved.  Additionally, with all that has become known about pesticides and their overuse and harmful affects on our health, many are reluctant to use any sort of pesticide at all in their garden.  In general, we believe that the organic choice is always the best choice, if available.  However, sometimes, in order to prevent the use of more harsh chemicals at a later time of year when a problem has turned into an outbreak, it is necessary to apply preventative chemicals so that larvae cannot form in the first place, and turn into a leaf eating beetle.

How to ID pests in the landscape.

There are so many small pests to identify that it can take years to understand the intricacies of IPM (Integrated Pest Management).  One of the best resources available can be found on the Chicago Botanic Garden website.  Here you get excellent identifying characteristics for the pest or disease, timing and treatment options.

Google images also does a great job of helping to identify pests through their descriptive characteristics.  There are many resources out there on best horticultural practices and how to swing your maintenance approach and pest control practices to a more organically balanced solution.