Garden pesticides help with fall insects
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JACKSON, Tenn. — West Tennessee gardeners know their work is never done. Though this time of year, there is not as much planting. There is a lot of preventing you can do, especially when it comes to bugs. Some believe that we just have to be a little more patient with nature. Summer is slowing down but the battle in the garden is not over yet. “There are some pests like azalea lace bugs, they’ll tend to build up in the fall,” said Dr. Frank Hale a UT Extension entomologist professor. “Then those eggs will hatch in the spring and so if you can control them before they can lay those over wintering eggs that would be good.” Disease and insects are inevitable in the landscape but Alan Windham a UT Extension plant pathologist said there are plants resistant to disease and choosing those will save time and money down the road. “That’s much easier than thinking about spraying because generally spraying, there is not an end to it,” said Windham Experts said the faster you can detect the pests within your garden, the sooner you can treat for it before it is too late in the season. “Bag worms that come out in the spring have produced those spindle like silk shells on the end of the trees, you really can’t do anything about those at this point with insecticides,” said Hale. “All you can do is pull those off.” Hale said using miticides or horticulture oils can help stunt Southern Red Mites that will start laying eggs on evergreens in the coming weeks. “Horticultural oil is a more refined oil that you can apply both in the summer and as a dormant application in the late winter early spring when the leaves are off the tree.” Hale said horticulture oils, which are available at local nurseries, are the safest alternative to strong pesticides.
