The pest population is bad this year due to a mostly mild winter and very wet spring and they are everywhere.
We’ve had a lot of calls and visits at the garden center about these pests, so here is a primer on three of the most common pests that are bugging Southwest Colorado gardens, including what to look for in order to identify them, and how to treat them.
The aphids
Aphids are rampant this year. Attacking willows, poplars, fruit trees and a wide variety of perennials and annuals, these are probably the most common thing you’ll find bugging your plants.
They can appear in just about any color- green, white, brown, pink and may or may not have wings. They are usually found on the underside of leaves or along the stems.
Aphid damage can be spotted by a distortion and curling of the leaves. Holes may also appear on the leaves.
The good news is that there are many effective controls for aphids. If you prefer a natural approach, try ladybugs. They’ll happily eat their way through your aphid infestation, plus they’ll be prettier to look at too. If you need something more powerful, consider Carbaryl. Carbaryl is a good low dose defensive insecticide that is excellent for many common pests, and it gentle enough to use on your pets for their fleas and ticks as well.
There are also many other good insecticides for aphids including systemics that work fairly well. A systemic is an insecticide that you sprinkle on the ground, water in, and it is absorbed up through the capillary system of the plant. The aphids ingest the chemical when they feed on the leaves.
The grasshoppers
They creep, they crawl, they hop and are generally a nuisance. If you have a really bad infestation, it can seem like your whole yard is crawling. Grasshoppers have plagued mankind for centuries, but now there are things you can do about them.
Grasshoppers can be brown or green and can cause a great deal of damage in a very short time due to their voracious appetite. Grasshopper damage is easily spotted through chewed leaves, but easier yet to spot are the hoppers themselves. They’ll eat just about anything that is green.
One of the best things to treat them, if they are small, is a product called NoLo Bait. This is a biological insecticide that you broadcast through your yard or garden. It’s safe enough to be distributed by bare hand. What this does is make them sterile so that they can’t reproduce - it’s like birth control for grasshoppers. Since it doesn’t kill them immediately, don’t expect to see results for several days a week, but it does work. Unfortunately, while you are waiting for it to work, they can do a lot more damage.
If you are an “I want them dead - NOW, please” kind of person, then consider Carbaryl. This works within a few days and, as mentioned above, is a good all purpose control for most gardens and can be used safely on veggies too.
The thrips
Thrips are probably the hardest of these three to spot. Western Flower Thrips are the most common in this area, although there are many kinds. They can be black, pinkish-tan, or other variations, but you’ll probably never see them. The way to tell if your have a thrip infestation is to take a flower that seems sickly, hold it over a white piece of paper, tap it, and then look carefully at the paper. You will see tiny, tiny thrips racing around on the paper.
Thrip damage is characterized by curled leaves, and they especially favor roses, mums, peaches, ornamental pears - just about anything that has a flower on it, and sometimes lots of things that don’t have flowers as well. You may also see brown spots. Sometimes the roses or other flowers won’t open, but seem to bud up then curl up and die. Thrips can literally suck the life right out of a plant or tree, so it’s important to pay attention to these neighbors.
The only really effective treatment for these very tiny bugs is Capt’n Jacks. This organic treatment was cultivated from a substance found in abandoned Caribbean Rum distilleries and has proven very effective at fighting the little buggers. Mix this according to label directions, but the trick is to add some table sugar to this mix. Thrips have an undeniable sweet tooth and the sugar helps to draw them of out of the infected plant to feed on the sprayed leaves and foliage. The spray interrupts their life cycle and it will take about 4 - 5 days before you’ll see results.
It’s been a particularly bad year for bugs, but if your yard is literally crawling, don’t despair. Take a close look at what’s going on around you. If you aren’t sure which houseguest you have, then bring a branch or flower in a ziplock bag to us at Four Seasons and we’ll help you identify your occupants. The good news is that these undesirable neighbors can be eliminated!
Gail Vanik can be reached at Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery at 565-8274 or by email at “[email protected].”
