On this page the following entry/entries were made in the month of “October, 2007.” Check out other months in our Archives.
Bug Blog Archives for “October, 2007”
Practitioner Interview: H. Curtis Mann
This is a practitioner interview with H. Curtis Mann. Mr. Mann works for Initial Tropical Plants, Philadelphia branch, as their warehouse supervisor and has held this position for the past five years. He has been in the business working for the above named company (under varied names such as Rentokil) and has been using beneficials for the past fifteen years. Mr. Mann hasn’t looked back since.
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Cut Greenhouse Heating Costs with Water
This is really worth doing, unless you’re happy with your current greenhouse fuel bill.
The Green Spot started life back in ‘91 and through it I grew culinary herbs for a living. That was how I learned about good bugs and jumped tracks. I had a solar-type greenhouse that I had built myself. I had a ton of strapping left over from a construction project so using glue and screws I laminated “beams” and I made a frame. It had an insulated vertical back wall, insulated vertical side walls, a short translucent double vertical front to create more head room, and a clear double front-facing roof pitched at a dramatic 51-52° — I forget. It served me extremely well, requiring very little maintenance. The best part of using this type of greenhouse was the huge fuel savings.
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Trapping Yellow Jackets with Fall Sweets
In the Autumn the eating habits of yellow jacket wasps change a bit from a preference for savory snacks and proteins, to a preference for sweets like rotting fruit, as can be seen in the photo. In the photo a number of wasps are feeding on a green grape in a compost heap. This type of behavior is typically only seen in the fall. Knowing this, you can use this info to your advantage if you’re trying to get rid of them.
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Sucking Up Plant Pests, Revisited
On this site using a there is a helpful hint instructing you to use a shop-vac to suck up whiteflies. It is followed by note of caution about the possibility of sucking up plants and plant parts. I liked the shop-vac idea, it worked well, but I put my own twist on it so I could better protect my plants if there was an unexpected encounter with the business end of the shop-vac’s hose. With a little preparation, you can actually vacuum your plants, allowing for removal of such pests as whiteflies, spider mites, and others, without causing extensive damage. Here’s what you do…
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Grubs Gone Wild — In the Northeast
Here in Southern New Hampshire nematodes can be used to advantage for maybe another week or two.
Apparently the numbers of white grubs in Massachusetts — and surrounding states — this year is much higher than normal according to a pest update provided by the UMass Turf Program authored by Turf Entomologist Dr. Pat Vittum.
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Should We Fix Organix?
Nature makes available to us some pretty powerful and completely natural tools to use against insect pests. Some of these products are naturally safe to use, yet, in our infinite wisdom as masters of the universe, we taint some of these natural wonders, adding to them a cocktail component in an effort to improve upon nature, gain an edge in the marketplace, and/or to remove the thought process and understanding of the pest from the equation. To make the products work even when we forget the laws of nature — to make them idiot proof, so to speak.
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