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Ornamentals and Turf |
You could be a yellownecked caterpillar if . . .
You have fewer hairs on your back than when you were younger.
You're still living with your twelve brothers and sisters.
When you're startled, you throw your head back and touch it to your tail end while holding on with your belly.
Your mother left you under a leaf before you were born.
You were found feeding on the old blueberry bush next to the rusted out Ford in the backyard.
You might also feed on crabapple, cherry, basswood, birch, oak, witch-hazel, or others.
The yellow or white stripes down your black back resemble a no passing zone on old Highway NC 42.
You can be drowned by swimming in beer or sprayed with B.t. or carbaryl.
The back of your neck matches the color of your mother-in-law's remaining teeth.
Your parents can be found hanging around streetlights at night outside the bar 'n grill.
You can be controlled with a big stick.
Your first name is Datana.
The tuliptree scale and magnolia scale is one of our largest scale insects and are sometimes quite damaging to tuliptree and magnolia. It has one generation per year. Its biology is unusual in that the scales reproduce in late summer and the tiny new scales overwinter on the twigs and stems (most of the soft scale insect pests of ornamentals reproduce in May or early June). Male tuliptree scales appear in early summer and mate with the females. The females swell considerably with eggs during the summer, but the eggs hatch as they are laid so that it appears the crawlers are born rather than hatched. Infested trees may become sticky with honeydew excreted by the scales and black with sooty mold fungi which grow in the honeydew. The overall tree may be weakened with sparse foliage and dead branches or the trunks may be distorted because the scales have killed the leader branches over the years. Homeowners sometimes object to the honeydew and the wasps, flies and bees that are attracted to the honeydew. We recommend that the tree be sprayed with horticultural oil now and in June, with dormant oil applied in the winter. For serious infestations, Merit may be used. As a soft scale, tuliptree scale is susceptible (armored scales are not). Merit applied now will provide control next year.
The North Carolina Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Station in Fletcher and the Southern Appalachian Apple IPM Net has a gallery of photographs of insect pests of apple trees available on the Internet. Quite a few of these pests (such as dogwood borers and green June beetles) attack other horticultural trees, so we felt that you may find this site useful if you have apple, crabapple or other ornamental trees. The Internet site is located at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/apple/pestbiology/pests.htm.
We have just begun to receive reports of low flying metallic blue-colored wasps over lawns. One such wasp is Scolia dubia. Scolia dubia is a black-colored insect with metallic blue highlights on the wings and thorax. The brownish abdomen has two yellow spots near the middle of the abdomen and the tip is a red-brown color. Scoliid wasps are considered beneficial insects because they help control the grubs of green June beetles and other beetles. They are present in North Carolina from June to October, but they are most abundant during August. The wasps are often seen hovering a few inches above lawns, flying in loops and Figure 8 patterns. The female wasp digs through the soil in search of grubs, burrowing her own tunnels or following those made by the grubs. These are not a stinging threat to humans and no control measures are suggested. Ornamentals and Turf Information Note No. 12 has additional information on the biology of scoliid wasps.
Employment and program opportunities are offered to all people regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating.
Last modified on September 2, 2003 by Stephen J. Toth, Jr.
