Japanese beetle control; plus a season of mushrooms
Before I begin this week’s topic of mushrooms, I want to relay some important information regarding Japanese beetle control.
When I wrote the column about these pests a few weeks ago, I neglected to mention one of the most effective and safe treatments to get rid of them in their larval or grub stage. There is a product called “Milky Spore” that is made from a bacteria called Bacillus popillaie that specifically kills Japanese beetle grubs without harming any other insects.
It is applied as a powder that is applied to your lawn and then watered in. The more grubs that are present, the quicker and more effective the treatment is.
In some cases it may take a few years to become completely active and it will not kill the grubs in your neighbor’s lawn, of course. You might want to discuss this tactic with your neighbors, or even with an entire suburban community if you happen to live in one.
Best results will be obtained if everybody uses it! Many years ago, when this product first appeared on the market, there was some concern that the bacteria would not survive our cold, upstate New York winters and I was reluctant to recommend it, but with newer formulations and our warming climate, I think it would work just about anywhere except perhaps at elevations over 1,000 feet in the Catskills.
It is non-toxic to pets, humans, birds, amphibians, and fish! Just read and follow label directions to apply. The best time to use it is right now, into September, as the beetle eggs are hatching into tiny grubs that are the easiest to kill.
Mushrooms
The almost daily rainstorms over the past two weeks have produced a banner season for all sorts of wild mushrooms! I cannot recall a more abundant fruiting in many, many years.
Of course, my memory is not what it used to be and I find myself trying to identify mushrooms that I have already learned, but also have forgotten.
There are many good mushroom identification books, but my favorite is the Audubon Society Field Guide. David Aurora’s book “Mushrooms Demystified” is also excellent.
All told I have perhaps a dozen, or even more mushroom identification books. Some are better than others, some are from Europe, (beware of some European look-alike species) but most are handy for cross referencing.
There are also many mushroom ID sites on Facebook, but I am reluctant to trust anything I see on Facebook. Some of the obvious mis-identifications I have seen posted are flat out awful! I wish people would not even offer a suggestion unless they are certain. This is particularly sad, because there are some real experts out there and they must feel really frustrated when they see these posts.
If I see a post from someone I know and respect, I feel a lot more confident, but many of these folks have given up even responding due to trolls and idiots who mock or argue with them. Mushroomexpert.com is also an excellent resource.
Learning how to identify mushrooms is not like trying to understand quantum physics, but it does require some background work. You need to know the language of the terms that are used routinely. If you don’t know what striations, scales, partial veils, vulvas and rhizomorphs are, you should not be eating wild mushrooms to begin with.
Personally, I am only interested in an unknown mushroom under the following conditions. I am not a mycologist and don’t pretend to be one. I am a fan of tasty treats.
1. Is it big enough or numerous enough to eat? Most LBM’s (little brown mushrooms) are not worth the effort to bend over.
2. Is it in good condition? Slug or bug infested mushrooms do not interest me.
3. Can this be confused with a toxic species?
Some of the mushrooms I have gathered and ate
this season include, Chanterelles, (two species of them), King Boletes, (probably three different species of boletes) chicken of the woods, two species of Lactarious, puffballs, morels (from Columbia county), meadow mushrooms, (Agaricus species) Stropharia, and black trumpets (another type of chanterelle)
and a new one to me, a green colored Russula. I also gather and eat Amanita jacksonii but I strongly suggest that you don’t do that. There are some very toxic, even deadly Amanitas that could be confused with this one.
As someone once quipped, “all mushrooms are edible; some, only once.”
There are also old mushroom collectors and bold mushroom collectors, but there are NO old, bold mushroom collectors.
Bob Beyfuss lives and gardens in Schoharie County. Send him an e-mail to rlb14@cornell. edu.