Which insect populations are expected to peak this year

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome.I'm Ron Wilson. You're in the garden
here on news radio six' tenWTVN. If you'd like to join us
here our number you're ready, eighttwo to one WTVN, eight hundred and
six to ten WTVN. Talking aboutYardning on this post July fourth weekend.
Hopefully had a great fourth able toget out and maybe do some grilling out
and a few fireworks here and there. I swear I heard more fireworks last

(00:23):
night than I did on the fourthor the third. I'm not sure what
that was all about, but definitelywe're going on long into the evening last
night, and I've got a funnyfeeling I don't know about you, that
we're probably gonna hear him again tonight. That's all right, everybody's celebrating all
about fourth July, right, yougot it, So get out there to
celebrate. Hopefully you're not traveling tomorrow. Seventy million people traveling on the road

(00:48):
tomorrow, seven million in the air. It's gonna be a little crazy,
but it's gonna be a little hottoo. But what do you say we
kick off our show. We'll talkmore about that later with the Buggy Joe
Bugs. What do you say?You all know Joe? He's the assistant
professor Commercial Hot Country. Ed youget here for the Ohio State Universey Extension.
By the way, On his email, it says Assistant Professor, Ohio
State University Extension, Hamilton County AssociatedFaculty, OSU Department of Entomology, co

(01:15):
leader of the OSU Extension, BuckeyeEnvironmental Horticultural Team, Buckeye Yard and Garden
Line bygl dot OSU dot edu.Mister commons sense you called itself budgy Joe
bugs. You know that's like whenI I hate to sell out these really
long biographies. You know, whenyou're giving a presentation, right, I
mean you've had it happen and thena person reads them and it's like,

(01:38):
well, okay, we're out oftime for the presentation. It took an
hour. I just always used tosay, you know, can you send
me a bio? Just say hey, here's run. That's what I always
said, here's run. In fact, yes, verbatim. I would always
say, yes, just tell peoplehere's ron. Here's run. So a
lot of interesting things happen, youknow, at least I don't think in

(02:02):
most areas I need to be.You know, in most areas we don't
need to worry about, you know, the additional fireworks setting alongs on fire
right, not after a couple ofgood showers you've had here recently. No,
as a matter of fact, it'samazing how much they kind of greened
up a little bit. And I'mgonna actually have to dust my lawmaw off.

(02:22):
It's it's amazing. I'm like youthat I'm amazed at how fast after
the you know, the turf grasswent you know, drought dormant, heat,
dormant, flysh drought dormant. I'mjust amazed at how quickly, you
know, it's it's waking up andgetting you know, long enough until as
I said, oh man, asmy wife pointed out the other day,

(02:46):
it's looking a little raggedy out there, and that did surprise me. But
it's good news on all. Shejust lets get you out of the house.
Well, yes, I kind ofI kind of felt that way too,
you know, and particularly when shesaid, you know, well,
you know you can take her threedays to do that, you know,
it's like, what really, Yeah, stay in the garage, that's right.

(03:09):
Yeah, So with all this rain, I I'm just I'm interrupting myself
here because I just have to saythis morning, I got an email and
you know, you and I getthese email messages all the time, right
with what is this you know,what is this bug? What's this insect?

(03:30):
And you know, you it's kindof like Christmas, you don't know
for sure until you you know,you open the image, right, you
don't know what you're going to get. And I opened the image and it
was a Japanese beetle, and Iwas I was thinking, wait a second
here, Well, I believe youknow from what I could gather that you

(03:53):
know, the person's a relatively younggardener, and it just really speaks to
the idea that well, first ofall, you and I are I don't
want to say we're getting old,We're just getting more mature. We're mature
and more experience an experience. Soit really does though again, it really

(04:16):
indicates, you know, what's happenedwith Japanese beetles, because you and I
have talked about this many times inthe past, you know, here in
Ohio and I actually kind of don'trecall the dates or years, but I
think it was probably in the latesixties to early seventies when the Japanese beetle
front, and by that I meanthat, you know, Japanese beetles were

(04:41):
introduced in about nineteen sixteen, Ithink along the East coast. I think
New Jersey. I think there wasanother introduction, if I remember correctly,
in the nineteen thirties in the Carolinas. Don't hold me to any of that,
but that's right, you know,that's about right. Well, one
thing native is introduced, you know, of course, they can start spreading

(05:03):
unless they're targeted for eradication, likeAsian longhorn beetle. But in this case,
there there was no one to dothat eradication, and so the Japanese
beetles started spreading west and that spread, you know, it took quite a
few years. I've always been abit amazed by that. But you know,
as I said, you and Iwere around when the when I call

(05:25):
the front, you know, thevery edge of the spread went through,
and numbers were horrendous, weren't they. I mean it was just that's when
that's when garden centers sold thousands ofJapanese beetle traps. Well and that just
yeah, well hey, you know, but but in that Now that's to
me, that is interesting too becauseif you think back to that, you

(05:47):
know, and everybody sold Japanese beetletraps, so you had so many of
them. You put out the traps, and you know, nobody thought this
thing through or scientific research about howmany you were actually drawing into your but
that was the that was the wayto go. You you know, you
were spraying with seven like crazy,or dust them with seven and then you
uh, and then you put thatin a soccer course and hit it on

(06:09):
your hand and do that. Butwell, you know as well as I
do, that was done at onetime. But but you know, and
that isn't that funny? And nowyou you know, you can't already find
I mean good, good thing,but you can't already find Japanese beetle traps
anymore. Well, you know,it's interesting because because you're right, I
mean, at the time, itkind of hardly mattered. There were so

(06:31):
many Japanese beetles you put a trapout, you know, it was well
you had you were weighing them atthe end of the day so you could
have the most in their yard.Well I caught forty five pounds, Well
I got thirty two pounds and Igot yeah, well, and it made
people feel pretty good, you know. Okay, I'm pulling some out of
here, but I mean they weredrops in the bucket. It wasn't until

(06:54):
a little bit later, though,And that's a very good point because the
USDA and i'd say Spartan fag culturehad a Japanese beetle lab at the research
center, our Ohio State University ResearchCenter in Western Ohio. In fact,
my wife was working there when Imet her, So that's kind of an
interesting, you know, little sidenote. Yes, yes, yes,

(07:17):
but but the research done there,you know, clearly was the first time
that science showed that if you putout one of these traps, you ended
up with more beetles in that locationand then also very importantly, more immature
beetles that we call grubs in theturf crafts around that trap. So you

(07:38):
know, we just didn't know untilscience, you know, revealed what was
actually going on. But the thething though that was just earth shattering today
was well, first, you know, I had a little bit of an
age related you know, Oh mygoodness, I can't believe this because you

(07:59):
and I again we experienced all thatso long ago. And then over time
things have changed, and believe peoplehanging during the break on exactly what has
changed. Right, Yes, we'llleave it hang at that, and now
we all know why the Japanese beetleis so tender to the heart of mister

(08:20):
and missus Boggs. There you go, Yes, yes, Japanese. There's
a story there as well. Nowwe remember until after the break what we
were talking about. All right,I'll write a note down that we were
talking Japanese beatles before the break.All right, we'll take a quick we'll
come back with Buggy Joe Boggs hereon news radio six ten WTVN. Welcome

(08:41):
back, You're in the garden withRon Wilson. You're on news radio six
ten w TVN. Time for parttwo with the Buggy Joe Boggs Report.
And Ellis said to remind you thatit's about Japanese beetles. Yeah, oh,
yes, I was just drifting awayhere, I was thinking about I
was just thinking about Mono lawn andall that. So, I, you

(09:01):
know, I want to say somethinghere. Though it occurred to me that
you know, I did not wantdidn't want to bring up the email message
and like, well, you know, someone could be listening and to be
embarrassing they didn't know what this was. No, no, no, it
arrived from a neighboring state, sothat we'll leave it at that. But
no, But you know, that'sa good point because you and I just

(09:22):
assume, and there are a lotof new gardeners out there that you have
no idea and you don't know whatthe damage could be for you know,
so you learn from it. Soto me, I think it's a great
example to put it out there forfolks that, you know, younger gardeners
are just getting involved in the youngcouples or you know, whatever, age
doesn't matter, just getting involved.If you don't or even if you've been
doing it for a long time,if you don't know, find out.

(09:45):
I'm not embarrassed to go to youand say, Joe, I don't know
what this insect is. I don'tknow what this is. You know,
I've been been in it for along time, but I don't. I
don't know, And so no,you should always ask and don't be afraid
to ask. I don't care whatit is and how long you've been doing
it whatever. That exactly right,because sometimes I mean, you know,
we bring this up. For example, I mentioned the Asian longhorn beetle.
Well, certainly you see a great, big black beetle with white spots,

(10:11):
and we would hope that people would, you know, find out what that
is. And there are other thereare many beetles that you know, look
very similar. But again you're exactlyright in this case. Though, what
really surprised me was just the factthat you know, somebody would ask because
we make these assumptions. You know, I've told this story before that when

(10:33):
I when I first came to SouthwestOhio, I we came from Pennsylvania,
where at the time we called themgypsy maths, but they're now called spongy
maths, and so we were verytuned in on what gypsy moth caterpillars look
like. Well, in southwest Ohio, we're in an area where spongy moth

(10:54):
is is to be eradicated. It'snot it is not allowed to exist here,
whereas in central and other parts ofOhio it's in a whole different management
scheme, meaning you know that it'saround, but it's not going to be
eradicated. Point being is, afew years ago, you know, I
got I received some images of caterpillarsfrom some very good professionals that I know

(11:20):
that didn't know what it was.And that was a surprise to me.
Ron I realized, oh man,I need I need to include, you
know, spongy moth in my training, because if you're in an area that
you've never seen it before, it'ssomething new. And as you just said,
Japanese beetles have started behaving like anative insect in our region. Originally,

(11:43):
they were so prevalent no one neededto be you know, there were
no identifications needed because they were justall over the place. But now we're
starting to see years like last yearfor example. As a matter of fact,
the last two years, I wasnot able to get a good picture

(12:05):
of Japanese beetles. They were justso rare. Now this year, it
does appear that there are some localand we say this very deliberately localized hotspots,
meaning that within the Greater Columbus area, for example, you can drive
from a location where there are quitea few to a location where there aren't
many, and the drive may beonly a few miles. And so that's

(12:30):
something to keep in mind. Butthe big question is, Okay, so
why are they now behaving so differently, and that has to do with something
that also happened with spongy moth,and that is if you have an insect
that doesn't kill its hosts like emeraldashboar. So you know, with emmelashbar

(12:52):
the food was the limiting factor.Once it killed it's you know, once
it took down so many ash trees, the population spell. Now that didn't
go to zero. I mean,we've talked about this m lashboard still lingering
out there. However, it causedthe population to crash at such a dramatic
rate that a lot of the whatwe call three PS predators, parasitoids,

(13:18):
and pathogens really didn't have enough timeto discover the beetles. However, with
Japanese beetles, they've had plenty oftime, and so everything from birds,
very heavy bird predations, to youknow, parasitoids, to other predators and
a lot a lot is occurring belowground. We can't even see it happening

(13:41):
as the beetles are in the grubstage. The point being is that over
the intervening years, the time thepopulations were huge until now we've started seeing
self regular or regulation going on bythe enemies of Japanese beetles. We're seeing
the same thing too. By theway, with brown marmorated stink bugs,

(14:01):
you and I've talked about that.There was very good research done on the
East coast, I think by PennState. I could be wrong, but
nonetheless maybe Rutgers, where you know, the researchers demonstrated that birds were learning,
you know what brown marmorad stink bugsare, that they were good to
eat. And that's something that youknow, even though birds eat stink bugs,

(14:24):
they don't you know, the stinkyblood doesn't cause them not to eat
them. They just didn't recognize thisnew food source. The same thing had
to occur Japanese beetles, for example, and consequently, now you know,
we see populations rise and fall dramatically, much like native insects. In fact,

(14:46):
exactly like native insects. And sowe're going to have years where we
don't see many, follow by yearswhen we might see quite a lot.
And one of the limiting factors withJapanese beetles is the environment. Because the
females lay dehydrated eggs, and youstop and think about that, that doesn't
make a lot of sense when youhave an insect that we most often see

(15:11):
in the heat of summer, right, we typically see them sometime late June
and then really moving through July withbig numbers, and normally in the Midwest,
that's when we start seeing high temperaturesand dry conditions where where Japanese beetles
evolve. Though the opposite was true. You know, during the heat of

(15:33):
the summer, you might say,you start getting a lot of rains,
and so this insect evolves a wayto produce more eggs in a limited space
of the body of the insect byproducing dehydrated eggs. You think about it,
They can pack more in that smallarea of the female's body, so
she drops dehydrated eggs. If thoseeggs are not hydrated by the environment within

(15:58):
somewhere between twenty four to forty hours, than they failed to develop. So
that is a big achilles heel forJapanese beetles. And this year, you
know, we start out, youknow, talking about the beautiful rains.
However, there's a bit of aconcern obviously that well, okay, the
beetles that are out there right nowwhen they start laying eggs. If this

(16:21):
continues, we could then see thedevelopment of grubs and maybe we'll start seeing
you know, more beetles next year. That's a complete you know guess.
But I'm just demonstrating that the environmentcan also play a big role. The
bottom line, though, is,you know, when you're at this as

(16:41):
long as we've been at it,you know, it's interesting to see some
of these things develop over the yearsto where okay, you and I look
at Japanese beetles as well. That'sjust pretty straightforward. You know. Everybody
knows that, and that is athat is a phrase that I really try
hard to avoid, although I doit. We all do it because you're

(17:04):
you're exactly right, ron, youknow, gardeners of a certain age.
Unfortunately that's becoming more and more gardenersright for us did not experience those huge
numbers, you know, through theseventies and early eighties. I mean,
I hate to say it, butyou and I know a lot of you

(17:27):
know of of people who are marriedand just starting out who were born after
that right right idea, They hadno idea. And so it is just
a reminder, you know that someof these things, you know, that
we may take for granted because we'vehad past experiences with it, well,

(17:48):
we shouldn't. You know, weneed to step back and say, well,
all right, but of greater significancein my mind is that, okay,
learning what exactly is happening, becausethis is just the don't apply to
Japanese beetles. We have quite afew insects that cycle this way, and
you know they'll eventually come back.This year might be a pretty interesting year

(18:11):
for Japanese beetles in some locations,and so we just need to be aware
of I'm going back to the trapsthough, I don't use them unless you
want to have a lot of Japanesebeetles, right exactly, Yeah, yeah,
And I don't even say that.I always say, doesn't put them
in your neighbor's yard as far awayfrom your yard as you can. It

(18:32):
is true, we you know wesay that, but but yeah, And
also what's very interesting is that thatit's hard to find Japanese beetle traps right
now. They are some people stillsell a few, and you can go
online and find them, but youdon't see them out there like you used
to see them, so not likeyou used to. Now that doesn't apply
to all insects, though I shouldsay this very very quickly. I mean,

(18:53):
I know we're about at a time, but you are, yes,
box treamon. Those traps only attractthe males, they don't attract the females.
So a lot of our traps usefor discovering new infestations do not you
know, do not increase the numbers. So I needed to say that because

(19:15):
Japanese beetle traps kind of have presenteda bit of a challenge in terms of
people feeling comfortable using other traps.And I think I'm just about out of
time. Are you? Are youcoming up to Columbus for the for cultivate?
I will not be up there,I know. I wish I don't

(19:36):
need an excuse. I was justcurious if you're coming, because on Monday
the fifteenth, Marty's got that talkyou're doing about what you didn't learn watching
Batman, and you and I needto go and be Heckler's in the background.
I wish I could I have adiagnostic walk about Mandy. What do
you think of that? Well?This six in the evening? Oh it

(19:56):
is, well, I still haveplenty of time, don't I. I
could book it up. Fun.Yeah, up, we'll sit in the
back and just to harassment the wholetime. You can be batman. I'll
be robbing. How's that sounds?Uh yeah, yeah, I know whatever,
all right, No, you wouldn'twant to see me in the costume.
Buggy Joe Bogs always a pleasure.Thanks for the great information. Getting

(20:18):
the website bygl dot OSU dot edu. We'll talk to you next Saturday.
Have a great week round. Takecare, bye bye bye bye quick break,
we come back to your phone linesare oving for you at eight two
to one w TVN here on newsradio six to ten WTVN eight two to
one w TVN eight hundred and sixto ten w tv IN talking about yard
ning on this fourth of July weekend. I hope you had a great one.

(20:41):
It's gonna be hot. It's gonnabe hot today, it's gonna be
hot tomorrow, it's gonna be hoton Monday, Tuesday. I don't know.
At least we did get some showersthat came through and it did.
It's amazing, wow, how thatmakes things change. You can water and
sprinkle and water and do the runthe whole thing, and mother Nature can
come through and give you a nicetwo or three hour shower and it's amazing,

(21:02):
makes a world of difference. Sheknows what she's doing. By the
way, talking with Buggy Joe there, I wanted to let you know that
back by a popular demand because shedid this last year. Marnie Titchenell from
OSU Extension, she is their wildlifeexpert, is doing that class again bats.
What you didn't learn watching Batman andfrom what I didn't get to go,

(21:25):
but from what I've heard, folksreally enjoyed us a lot of great
information. Marnie is great. Sheteams up with the Kerry Brown and they're
going to be at the Coyote RunNature Preserve in Pickerington. All right,
the Coyote Run Nature Preserve in Pickeringtonis coming up Monday the fifteenth, is
from six thirty to nine thirty inthe evening, and registration deadline is tomorrow.

(21:48):
It's fifteen bucks and you get likesnacks and all the great information and
you get to meet Marnie and learnmore about bats and it really is a
good time. She's outstanding you doingthis. So if you want to do
your registration, you go online.It's Woodland Woodland Stewards dot OSU dot edu.

(22:10):
Woodland Stewards dot OSU dot edu andsign up for this thing. But
again, registration closes after tomorrow.A little cough there, Sorry about that,
but again it's a great one andagain backed by popular demand. But
what you didn't learn watching Batman andI think but again bats highly unappreciate,

(22:33):
unappreciated in our landscapes for what theydo feeding on mosquitoes and other pests that
are out there. Know they don'tfly in your hair, No, they're
not blood sucking. Well, thoseare all kinds of things that you'll learn
about from Marnie and Carrie Brown atthis get together. But again it's Monday,
July fifteenth, six thirty to ninethirty in the evening Coyote Run Nature

(22:53):
Preserve in Pickerington, But registration endstomorrow, all right, And to register,
it's Woodland Stewards Woodland Stewards dot OSU, dot eedu. And if you
forget that, email me and Iwill get that back to you as quickly
as I can so that you cantomorrow get that. I'll watch my emails

(23:17):
to get that back to you soyou can get that taken care of.
Also, Buggy Joe was talking aboutseeing some Japanese beetles now. As a
matter of fact, I haven't hadJapanese beetles in our garden, our yard
for a long time. I'll seeone or two or three or a few
here and there every now and then. It's very very very limited, and
there's been some years I haven't seenany at all. But just happened to

(23:37):
be sitting out I think it wasfourth of July, sitting out on the
patio, and I have some zenias. As a matter of fact, I
had gotten these from the Oakland Nurserywhen we were there on the what was
that the fifteenth some really great themixed containers of zenias. They are absolutely
gorgeous. Starting to develop a fewholes in the leaves on one of the
containers, and I thought maybe i'dgotten some slowugs in there or whatever.

(24:00):
They're coming up and chewing on itat nighttime, and I was kind of
inspecting looking on the bottom of theleaves, see if I can see these
snail trails or whatever. And sureenough, as I pulled a couple of
the leaves down to look down wherethey come out of the stem, there
was a Japanese beetle. And they'reso good at doing this, so you
don't see them, especially during theheat of the day, because they kind
of don't like the heat of theday. They'll bury, they'll nose themselves

(24:22):
right down where that leaf goes intothe comes out of the stem, and
they'll go into that little crevice andthey'll bury themselves right down in the middle
of that. You can't see themunless you really pull that down. I
found I think I found three total, and at one pot that was it.
They were there doing all the holesthat were in there. The other
pots don't have any at all.Picked them out obviously, a little bit
of the size twelve shoe smash themand it's a good good to go.

(24:47):
But I'll also notice this time ofthe year cardinals and blue jays would show
up, and as a matter offact, we've had them showing up the
last four or five days around ourpatio area. And when I used to
have a Harry Lotterer's walking stick rightthere, it was a magna for Japanese
beetles, and the cardinals and theblue jays and all would come and eat
those off of there. And Ihad between that and hosing them off of

(25:08):
the plant, the beetles and makingthem go somewhere else. I minimize the
damages on that because that thing couldjust get the leaves and can just get
destroyed from Japanese beetles. They lovethat plant. But I noticed last year,
and I think I brought this upon the show. Last year,
I noticed that the cardinals all ofa sudden starts showing up hanging out on

(25:29):
our deck. We walk out theback door. There's a deck there that's
about eight feet out twelve feet long, and then you step down to the
next level, but where the patiois, but there's that railing that's right
there in the handrail is where Ilet the carpenter bees drill their holes and
do their thing, lay the eggs, and then there and they hatch out,
come back out. You see babiesout on all the time, where

(25:51):
you know it takes them a fewdays a few hours to get warmed up
and all that. But the cardinalskind of caught onto that last year.
And actually we're like you could seethem get down on the deck and look
up in the hole to see ifthe carpenter bee was getting ready to come
out of that hole, and ifit dropped out or was close, they'd

(26:11):
just reach up in there and pickit out. Well, they're back again,
same timing. And I noticed themthree or four days ago, and
I realized same thing, actually goingafter the carpenter bee, the small ones
that are up in those holes thatmay be maturing to come back out of
there, So they hang out waitfor those things to drop. How they've
got that timing down, That's whatJoe was saying, becoming more like a

(26:33):
native, acting more like a native. You know, how do they know
that when those things are gonna,you know, drop down? How they
know when the Japanese be I don'tknow, but they certainly do, and
they can be very helpful for youand sometimes but I don't like them going
after my carpenter bees. Those aregood pollinators. But it's fun to watch
them come in and hang out becausecardinals are so attractive in the garden,
a little dinner and show. Justdon't like to see them going after all

(26:56):
those carpenter bees. I know youprobably would because you don't like the carpenter
bees. I like the carponer beesbecause they're good pollinators. All right,
quick break, we come back phonelines. And by the way, I
for Yale failed to mention coming upat the top of the hour, we
have the doctor with us. DoctorAlan Apple Armitage has agreed to talk to
us this morning from his perennial gardendown outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Find

(27:18):
out what's going on with doctor AllanArmitage. Of course, there's a website
Alanarmities dot net. Be sure andcheck it out. It's always a pleasure
having on our show coming up thetop of the hour. But in the
meantime, you and me talking yardningat eight two to one WTVN, here
on news radio six to ten WTVNeight two to one WTVN, eight hundred
and sixty ten WTVN talking yarning hereon news radio six ten wtv and by

(27:42):
the way, talking about those Japanesemeat beetles and the grubs that they possibly
could produce. Don't forget it's notjust the Japanese beetles that produce the grubs
that can feed on your turf.You know, you don't forget the Northern
mass chafers, the June beatles,June bugs. Maybe you know those little
brownns they're readyes, browns or roasetapers. They all have the grub that

(28:04):
lay their eggs in the soil.They obviously hatch out into the grubs several
different stages there before they get inthe springtime, come back up into an
adult, start the process all overagain. So it's not just the Japanese
beetle that does that. It's allthose beetles and then many different types of
beetles in the state of Ohio thatcan do that and cause grub problems.
But now, if Japanese beetles,if you have a heavy population to come

(28:26):
in and they come into your yard, you draw them in. Obviously,
as they make they're going to laytheir eggs. There's a good chance they're
going to drop right there and laytheir eggs in your yard. And like
Joe was saying, this is onetime wherever you irrigate your lawn and you
have a lot of beetles in yourarea, not a good thing because they
like that because they want the moisturefor those eggs to hydrate and continue to

(28:48):
grow. But point being is this, if you've had issues with grubs in
the past and your turf and thenyou know in September October you start getting
these brown spots thanks to the grubs. There are other reasons you could be
getting those, but thanks to grubs. In general, grub treatment preventatives are
applied now. You usually do thatsometime about mid juney through July, and

(29:11):
can go into early August as well. But now's the time to put those
down. The important thing. Andremember, if you're gonna put down a
grub preventter and you go to yourlocal garden center and you say I'm gonna
do some grub control, tell themthat you're doing the grub preventer, not
the grub kill. There are twodifferent types of products here. Grub kills
are a quick kill. So youput it down in September, you see

(29:33):
that you've got the grubs, yougot the damage, gonna get rid of
them. You can put it downat that point, water it in really
well and hopefully knock them all outat that point or most of them out.
Anyway, you probably don't get you'llnever get one hundred percent control.
But what you put down right nowgoes after them just as they come out
of that egg stage, in avery young stage, so you get them
before they even get started, allright. So that's the grub preventter.

(29:57):
So there's a grub preventer and agrub killer, and you want the grub
preventter. The key to this thingbeing successful when you apply it is making
sure that it gets watered in well. You've got to get it down into
the soil. If you have heavythatch, which we really don't see so
much anymore lawns, but if youdo and it's out there, a heavy

(30:18):
thatch might not work for you toowell because you can't get it through the
thatch, or you make sure you'rereally watered enough to get it through the
thatch. But otherwise putting it downyou got to and read the label.
I'll tell you how much to putdown water wise, but you've got to
make sure you get that watered in, really well saturated down into the soil
for them to be effective. Andyou'll never get one hundred percent control.

(30:40):
I would bet my check on thatyou'll never get a hundred percent. You
may get a pretty good control,but never one hundred percent. But the
kicker is this, Remember, agood healthy turf, a good healthy rooted
in turf can withstand. I've heardnumbers anywhere from ten to fifteen to twenty
grubs per square foot not show anyserious damage. Uh, So you know

(31:00):
you if you don't get them allyou know. But you've got a good,
healthy turf, you should be goodto go. But point being is,
if you need to put the grubbyprevented down, now is the time
to do it, and make sureyou water it in well. To the
gardening phone lines, we shall goMike, Good morning, Mike, and

(31:23):
we'll give Mike a chance one more. No, Mike, all right,
so we got a good Wow,that was aggressive. He's not listening.
All right. Let's go to Annand good morning, Hi, Ron,
love your show. Thank you havea question. I have tomato, some

(31:47):
tomato plants, and they're about fouror five feet tall and just as leafy
and wonderful look on as you couldeven want. However, they are not
putting out little blooms. So howcan I have tomatoes without having the little
booms? First, you can't.That's a pretty good question. You can't.

(32:07):
And now is when that question startsto come on pretty strong though.
I've got ten plants out there thatsomebody will say I got two of them
that have no flowers whatsoever. Whatdo I do to get that to change?
Is really not a whole lot youcan do. That's up to the
vine itself. I think the thingyou have to a couple of things.
We look at. Obviously, asmuch sun as they can get the better

(32:27):
for the plant. Not overfeeding themwith too much nitrogen where they push out
a lot of new growth. Butif they do that, you get a
lot of nitrogen, they'll just concentrateon new growth and they won't concentrate on
flowering. So when you look ata tomato food, it's usually you know,
a little bit higher in that middlenumber. You'll give you nitrogen,
but higher on that phosphorus and thepotash to help promote blossoming. So that's

(32:52):
that's the other thing you can try. But don't overfeed them with the nitrogen.
And unfortunately, other than that,there is nothing else you can do
to help and courage that thing toflower. And I have seen these things
go until now or even the endof July and then all of a sudden
start to produce flowers and you geta late crop and they do come on.

(33:12):
Rarely do they ever go through theentire season with no flowers whatsoever.
So you know, all you cando is hang in there, do your
watering. If you can get afertilizer that's like a five ten five or
five ten ten something like that.Try that around it, or a bloom
booster, you know, that's higheringthat phosphorus, and give them a shot
of that and otherwise just sticking thereand hang with them. Have you done

(33:37):
any any pruning with the you know, putting those little suckers out? No,
I haven't. Well you might wantto try. I've been using miracle
grow. Let's yeah, let's lookfor something that's a little higher and that
and I don't know which one yougot, but look for that middle number
that's going to be a little alittle higher that that phosphorus in the middle.

(33:57):
Look look for something like that andsee if that. I like,
Spoma's tomato tone is a great that'swhat I use because it has calcium in
it. But anything like that area bloom and they'll say bloom booster on
it, which is really high onthat phosphorus. Maybe that'll help you out
a bit. Where the main stemscome off of the trunk of the tomato
vine. All right, there's usuallya little bit of guy that grows right

(34:19):
out of the middle of that,right, pinch that out of there,
go through and kind of pinch thoseout. That's called pruiting of your tomato
right and pinch those out of thereand then give it see if you can
come up with a higher phosphorus fertilizerjust a one shot and give it a
shot of that and just be patient. And what I would like for you
to do is check back with mein about three weeks forward, the end
of July, and let me knowif they did start flowering at that time,

(34:44):
because, like I said, I'veseen a lot of them just go
and go and go, and allof a sudden flowers start to appear.
So other than that, there's nothingreally else I have for you to make
it work. Okay, Okay,I use the vegetable fertilizer for oh my
plans good, and that that shouldbe that a higher phosphorus a little bit

(35:06):
or even more even numbers. Itshouldn't, you know, be too high
on the nitrogen that and that canbe an issue sometimes. Okay, okay,
check my products all right, andthen let me know. Give me
the end of July, first ofAugust, let me know what happened.
Okay, Thank you, thank you, good talking with you, and we'll
try Mike one more time. Mike, Hello, Yes I'm here, Yes,

(35:28):
sir, I was wondering, I'vegot an area in a in a
barnyard where this whole building used tobe, and all these sumac trees have
grown and they're now they're up toabout twelve fifteen feet high, and I
was wondering how I can get ridof them, because it's about it ten

(35:52):
yards square of them. So it'sit's just the old staghorn sumac. Yeah,
probably red, they're starting to getthe red plume in the middle.
Yeah, Unfortunately. You know acouple of things you could do. I
mean, you could go in thereand spray them with a non selective vegetation

(36:15):
killer and burn all the foliage off, and now you still got all these
ten foot tall trunks that are stillsitting there. So your best bet,
mic, and it's not probably whatyou want to hear, is to go
through and just clear everything off rightat the base. But that does have
a lot of sucker roots out there, so you want to treat that with
a non selective vegetation killer, broadleaf weed killer, whatever, paint the
base of that where you cut thatoff fresh and hopefully that'll stop them from

(36:37):
resuckering from after that cut. Butthat's what you're looking to do. Physical
removal, paint the top of thetrunk, or you made the cut and
hopefully they'll keep them from coming backup here. On news radio six to ten WTVN