Punch List
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Plant Health Care (PHC) are both catch-all phrases for the commonsense action plans to handle pest insects, diseases and cultural issues (soil, watering, mulch, etc.) that find your garden. The goal is to address these issues economically and with safety in mind for you, your pets and respect for the environment.
• The steps for IPM are prevention, discernment, inspection and action.
• Carefully give a twice-over look for insects and disease when purchasing or sharing plants.In other words, try to prevent future issues.
• Choose the right plants for your landscapes — avoid planting a problem. Look for fruit tree cultivars that are resistant to fire blight disease or street trees less prone to limb breakage. Aspen trees are not an ideal choice for urban settings. They prefer growing in their natural mountain setting with lighter, more acidic soils. Expect them to have a shorter city life expectancy and be prone to leaf spots, canker and scale insects.
• Consider choosing new plants for the landscape that are not attractive to Japanese beetles, which will be emerging soon in some locales along the Front Range.
• Seeing aphids on a plant, tree or shrub doesn’t require first reaching for a can of insect spray. Determine (discern) your threshold of intervention based on the plant damage and possible short- or long-term plant decline.
• Scouting means regularly (often daily) inspecting your plants. Look for chewed or distorted leaves, loss of plant vigor, or color changes. If it doesn’t look right take a closer look.
• Avoid spraying insects without knowing whether it is a beneficial or destructive insect. Snip some leaves with eggs (commonly found on leaf undersides) or adults (if catchable) and place in a clean, zipped baggy or paper sack. Take them to knowledgeable garden centers or your county Colorado State University extension office for correct identification.
• Consider the after effects of using sprays in the garden. The use of organic and synthetic sprays often has unintended consequences like hurting pollinators and upsetting the natural balance of beneficial/predator insects taking care of pest insects.
• If prevention wasn’t effective or available, or the threshold indicates more intervention, use the least disruptive measures for control first. In many cases with pest insects, the cavalry of beneficial insects will show up soon to take care of the problem. For example, lady beetles (also known as lady bugs) love to munch on aphids, but they won’t arrive to dine unless the aphid table is set. Be patient. Give your garden time for the beneficial predator insects to arrive. Also, hosing the aphids or spider mites off with water is fast, cheap and effective.
• Take time to learn more about common insects in the garden — good and not so good. The larval stage of a lady beetle looks like a tiny black alligator with red or yellow markings. Don’t squish them, they eat more aphids in this stage than as adult beetles. Same for beneficial green lace wing insects. Their larvae, often called aphid lions, are brownish with a ferocious looking pair of hooked jaws. At this stage they’ll eat small beetles, caterpillars, thrips, mites and aphids. View photos and more information on beneficial insects here: bit.ly/2sUqM27.
•Treating the emerald ash borer, which to date has only been found in Boulder County, is a good example of when to step up prevention or intervention practices. A green ash tree (genus Fraxinus) without treatment will die. Homeowners have choices for management if the insect is found early. Consider starting prevention treatments when the insect is detected closer to your county. Another option is to plant a new tree near your current ash tree, so you’ll be ready to either treat or remove the ash. Stay on top of all emerald ash borer treatment options, updates and get more information at beasmartash.org.
• Use care when spraying any product. Read all labels and the entire label — it is the law. The label includes the toxicity signal work (caution, warning, danger), mixing instructions and when to apply (temperatures matter). The label may recommend wearing protective clothing, eyewear and a mask. By law, products that harm pollinators (indicated on the label) cannot be used on plants that are visited by pollinators when the plant is in bloom.
• Spray drifts move quickly and farther than you realize so avoid spraying on windy days. Drift from sprays can easily cause damage to surrounding plants, which is often mistaken for insect or disease problems.
• Next week we’ll cover Japanese beetle action plan options.