Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

Insect Pests

Gardening Video: Managing Bad Bugs in Your Vegetable Garden

Saturday Seminar presents:
Managing Bad Bugs in Your Vegetable Garden—Lessons from The Learning Garden

Squash Vine Borer adult_Lisa Brown_CC BY-NC 2.0_Flickr
Squash vine borer adult

Presenter: Laura Brooks, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

Now that you’ve planted your vegetable garden, it’s time to discuss the nemesis of every veggie gardener: bad bugs!  Which ones should you look out for and what can you do about them?

Laura Brooks, co-chair of The Learning Garden’s vegetable plot located at the Buncombe County Extension office, highlights the three most common pests that were encountered last year in The Learning Garden: squash vine borers, flea beetles, and Mexican bean beetles. She describes the organic methods that Master Gardeners used to help ward off these pesky insects.  Laura explains the life cycle of these insects, what they look like from larvae to adult stages, when they emerge, and effective treatments.

To access this video on the Buncombe County Master Gardener website, click on the link:

Managing Bad Bugs in Your Vegetable Garden

Or go to www.buncombemastergardener.org, click on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of the page and select ‘Gardening Videos’ from the drop down menu.

Pest Alert: Nantucket Pine Tip Moth

If you’re spending more time outside as the weather warms, you might notice problems in your landscape. One homeowner called the Garden Helpline about white webbing on the ends of some of the branches of a tree purchased as a live Christmas tree. She planted the tree in a special place in her yard as a reminder of that happy occasion. Although she knew it was a pine, diagnosing the problem required determining what pine species it was. The number of needles in each needle bundle can identify pine species. She reported that there were 3 needles in each bundle, helping identify the tree as a Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris), a very popular Christmas tree species.

Scotch PIne three needle bundle
Three needle bundle pine

Damage: The description of the webbing she saw helped determine that her tree was infested with the Nantucket pine tip moth, (Rhyacionia frustrana). Other signs include:

• Deformed growth (stem crooking) or a reduction in growth (bushy or stunted growth);
• Fecal deposits may be present in the webbing on the outside of infested shoots;
• Trees can be killed when exposed to repeated Nantucket pine tip moth larval infestations.

Damage caused by Nantucket Pine Tip Moth

Identification:

• In North Carolina, this pest overwinters as pupae in hollowed out pine shoots;
• On warm days as early as January and February, new moths emerge to mate;
• Adult moths are 1/4 inches (6.3 mm) long with the head and body covered with gray scales. The forewings are covered with brick-red to copper-colored patches that are separated by irregular bands of gray and white scales;
• Adult females lay white to opaque eggs on shoots, needles, or terminal growth in spring;

Adult Nantucket Pine Tip Moth

• From 5 to 30 days later, young larvae (caterpillars) hatch from eggs and feed on the surface of new growth. These are 1/16 inches (1.6 mm) long, and cream-colored with a black head. They then move to the shoot tips, construct protective webs at the base of buds, and begin to bore into the bud or stem.
• Feeding continues inside the bud or stem until the caterpillars are fully grown in 3 to 4 weeks. The caterpillars then pupate inside the damaged stem.

Management:

• Proper watering, fertilization, and mulching practices to keep pine trees healthy;
• For minor infestations, you can hand prune infested shoots if branches are reachable.

Susceptible pine species:

• Other three needle bundle pines, which include pitch pine (P. rigida) and loblolly pine (P. taeda).
• Two needle bundle pines are highly susceptible to infestation. These include Japanese red pine (P. densifolia), mountain pine (P. mugo) and Japanese black ine (P. thunbergii).

Resistant pine species:

  • Eastern white pine (P. strobus) and Virginia pine (P. virginiana), which have five needle bundles.

                                        Article by Bob Wardwell, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

For more Information:
Nantucket Pine Tip Moth: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/nantucket-pine-tip-mo

How to Identify Pines: https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2019/02/arent-they-all-just-pines-how-to-id-conifer-trees/

The Garden Detective: What’s the White Fluff on My Serviceberry Tree?

Q:  My serviceberry tree has white fluff under some of its leaves! The affected leaves turn orange and then drop off. Help! What should I do to prevent whatever it is from damaging my tree any more than it already has?

Serviceberry tree_Amelanchier arborea_Rosaceae_Kerry Woods_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_Flickr
Serviceberry tree

A:  When it comes to garden problems, it’s best to do a little sleuthing before taking any action.

Our “victim” is a serviceberry tree (Amelanchier spp.). In western North Carolina, this early spring bloomer with delicate white blossoms and beautiful early summer berries is a welcome addition to any garden or forest-scape. After its blooms provide bees and other insects with nectar and pollen, its fruits are a favorite of birds and mammals—from chipmunks to bears, as well as people! 

The possible culprits? Like Miss Marple (who is an enthusiastic fan of lovely gardens), we’ll start with what we know. To figure out likely attackers, we turn to Extension horticulture experts! Serviceberry is subject to several insect pests, including pear sawfly, borers, and oystershell scale that don’t match the description. There are pests and diseases from which to choose. Could it be two-spotted spider mites? Or how about lacebugs? Powdery mildew is a common disease of serviceberry—how about that? With so much information available, it can be challenging. 

The local “detective” team. It’s time to visit the Extension Master Gardener HelpLine at the Buncombe County Extension Office, 49 Mt. Carmel Road, Asheville, NC.

The solution. Looking under a microscope at an affected leaf reveals the pest’s true identity: woolly aphids! These handsome little critters look like they are festooned in white feathers. But looks are deceiving. In reality, woolly aphids are covered in waxy strands that make them impervious to insecticidal soap or contact insecticides. Like other aphids, these pear-shaped insects suck sap from plant leaves using their needle-like mouthparts.

 What to do? NCSU Cooperative Extension Hoke County Center notes that “lacewings, lady beetles, and parasitic flies normally keep woolly aphid populations below numbers that rarely damage trees. Try to tolerate damage or presence on trees and shrubs. Populations of woolly aphids rarely get to levels that harm plants despite the appearance of distorted leaves.” So, removing and bagging the affected leaves is all that is needed at this point!

More about serviceberry
Before we close this case, there is one more mystery. Where did the name serviceberry come from? George Ellison writes in the 10 April 2013 edition of Smoky Mountain News:

“Retired Western Carolina University botanist Jim Horton notes in The Summer Times (1979): “Several explanations are advanced for the common name serviceberry … The most interesting, though not necessarily the most accurate, holds that the tree blooms during ‘service’ time; the time when old-timey itinerant preachers were first penetrating the mountains after the spring thaw and performing services…

“In A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America (1950), naturalist Donald Culross Peattie, who lived for awhile during the 1930s near Tryon, notes: ‘It is from the fruits that the Sarvissberry takes its name, for the word is a transformation of the ‘sorbus’ given by the Romans to a related kind of fruit.’”

Whichever theory you choose to accept, one thing is certain: Amelanchier arborea is a garden favorite!

Article written by Janet Moore, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer.

Learn more
Woolly Aphids Present Sticky Situation
University of Kentucky

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Buncombe County Extension Office
49 Mount Carmel Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Helpline 828-255-5522

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