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| Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepemichelle/ |
We've have had a boring few weeks, all mold and fungus, but now it’s getting interesting!
The intense heat and the deluges are stressing out our plants! Someone's neighbor just put in a pool and her 3 arborvitae are getting backwashed – between the chlorine and the flooding, these trees are in trouble!
We’ve also got leaf scorch combined with cedar apple rust on a crabapple tree.
We’ve got bugs: Japanese Beetles, a grapevine beetle that smelled like wine (but Bonnie just thought it stunk - it was dead, afterall).
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) is becoming a problem. People are reporting it eating their fruit and squash. There are some kindhearted folks who think that if a bug is found in the house, it should be carried outside and released. I say: it's toast!
Mosquitoes – need I say more? West Nile Virus has been found in Lower Bucks, be careful! And gnats are a “gnuisance." There are yellow sticky traps that can be hung outside and replaced as they get covered, but I’m not sure if that will be enough to make a noticeable difference.
That’s what’s heating up the Horticulture Hotline this month!
-- Bucks County Master Gardener Debbie Bennett-Vidaure
