As we count down the last few Dog Days of Summer, it seems a few pests are making their appearance. Had quite the fight recently with several yellow jackets who did not want me to take down the hummingbird feeder. Before the wasps, it was the European paper wasps who were a nuisance. However, the persistent sugar ants were definitely not intimidated.
Another pest who has shown up is the fall webworm. I noticed a couple of 鈥渢ents鈥� in the pear tree while John was doing some pruning. They were promptly removed and relegated to the garbage.
I was a little surprised to spot the tents as I had not noticed any white adult moths in July. Being a moth, they typically fly around in the evening and night hours but they will land somewhere and sleep away the daylight hours. Quite often we will see them on the back wall of the house or an arbour post or one of the gates. They are hard to miss since they are all white with a fluffy ruff on the back of their head, tiny black spots on their wings and some bright orange markings on their underside between their front legs.
Guess I just have not been attentive enough in the garden since another tent web has appeared on the vine maple. Too high up to reach, even with the orchard ladder, I think. But keeping the eyes peeled now and through to the end of August when the mature larvae will start to drop to the ground to pupate through the winter. This is the time to make a dent on the population of this particular pest, before they get a chance to morph into their adult moth form and emerge in June through July next gardening season.
Thank goodness, this pest only has one generation a year and the larvae also do not totally destroy their host plants either. I sure would hate to lose our pear tree!
I had a giggle the other morning. Caught John walking down the path towards the tool shed, left hand clutching his mug of morning tea close to his chest and right hand raised from bent elbow, as if he was hoisting an imaginary saber sword. He just hates walking into spider webs.
Let鈥檚 face it. It is that time of year, particularly for those lovely, big orb weaver webs. Those readers who have visited the garden and walked any of the paths in John鈥檚 back garden will know it is not too big a stretch for an industrious pumpkin spider, a species of orb weaver spiders, to build a web right across a path in the middle of the night. Certainly not something you want to take on the chin before you have finished your morning cuppa.
Even more disgusting is finding a cutworm, butt end sticking out of a tomato in your greenhouse. A worse scenario is when you find more than one cutworm. They can do a fair amount of damage to a tomato crop in the dead of night, let me tell you.
During a cutworm attack on our tomatoes, John and I will make several trips to the greenhouse throughout the night, flashlight in hand, on the hunt for the varmints. But man! Are they ever good at hiding in the tomato foliage.
When they reach the last larval instar stage in the fall, they bury themselves in the soil to overwinter. Come warm spring weather they will emerge to feed for a bit and then pupate in the soil until June-July when they emerge as the large yellow underwing moth and start the cycle all over again.
A gardener needs to be attentive as well as persistent! Happy harvesting!
