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Timely Tendings: Be on the lookout for insect infestation Serious and not, tips for keeping squirrels away

 
Published Sept. 18, 2014

Be on the lookout for insect infestation

Whiteflies, pictured at top, can be very damaging. Check citrus, gardenias, camellias, your vegetable garden and other host plants. The nymphs feed on the underside of leaves. One sure sign of an infestation of whiteflies is the presence of black sooty mold on the top of the leaves. Adult whiteflies are attracted to yellow. Yellow sticky cards can be used as an alternative to chemical pesticides. Place the card near the plant so that as the adults mature they will fly to the cards and get stuck.

Be on the lookout for fall armyworms in all types of lawns. Armyworms, bottom, are the larvae of moths. When full grown, the larvae are about 1 ½ inches long, yellowish-brown to black with a wide, dark stripe on each side of a midstripe that ends in an upside-down Y on their head. Their feeding can cause circular bare areas in the lawn.

Insects such as hornets, yellow jackets, mud daubers and cicada killers are all wasps. They are generally considered to be beneficial and not pests, because they attack and destroy many harmful insects found around homes and gardens. Hornets and yellow jackets kill such pests as houseflies, blowflies and various caterpillars.

Though beneficial, wasps also attack people. They nest above and below ground and some are very aggressive. To control these pests in inappropriate places such as near entrances and walkways, use a wasp and hornet spray for quick knockdown.

Compiled by Theresa Badurek, urban horticulture extension agent, UF/IFAS Pinellas County Extension Service. For additional landscape and garden information, visit pinellascountyextension.org. Regular tips and information about what's growing in Pinellas are available on Facebook, Grow Pinellas.