Insect and Critter Control

Wendy Hanson Mazet

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension

hansonw@unce.unr.edu

Anything or anyone that is detrimental to your garden or landscape – destroys crops &

structures

– poses health threats to family or pets

– reduces aesthetic value of your property

First ask yourself - What is a Pest?

Insect & Critters in the Garden Six Key Steps

• Observation

• Early Detection

• Correct Identification of insect or pest

• Education

• Select appropriate control

• Proper application

• Anticipates and prevents damage

• Uses several tactics in combination

• Improves effectiveness, reduces side effects

• Relies on identification, measurement, assessment, and knowledge

Integrated Pest Management IPM: a balanced, tactical approach

Control Tactics

Five Most Common

• Mechanical

• Cultural

• Physical

• Genetic

• Chemical

Know For Insects - Know Your Enemy:

• Sucking Insects: Pierce and suck plant juices Yellow or bronze discoloration of leaves and shoots

Wilting and curling of leaves and shoots

Aphids, whiteflies, mites (not true insects) feed near tip of young shoots and on undersides of leaves

Leafhoppers feed under leaf surfaces, and scale feed on leaves, stems, and shoots.

All feed in large groups except leafhoppers

Piercing Insects • Control: • Keep plants healthy • Maintain a diverse habitat • Monitor garden daily, so

when insect pests are found, control measures can be taken quickly. – hose plants off – insecticidal soap sprays – horticulture oils including

Neem oil – Cover with garden blanket – Encourage Beneficial insects

Aphid • Small, soft bodied insects 1/10 inch

long • Long mouth parts used to suck plant

juices. • Cornicles are found on most species. • Found in many colors. • Most over-winter as eggs, hatch in

spring. • Secrete honeydew. • Most abundant in cool spring and cool

fall. • Ants may be present tending aphids.

Stink Bugs

•5/8 inches long, bright green, brown with stripes, large body small head

• When crush they stink!

•Piercing/sucking mouth parts

• stippling damage on leaf and stem tissue

•Barrel like eggs laid on leaf and stem tissue

NCCE

Squash Bugs

University of Minnesota Extension

•5/8 inches long, brown with stripes, large oblong body small head

•Overwinter as adults

•Piercing/sucking mouth parts

• stippling damage on leaf and stem tissue

•Eggs are rust to root beer colored and found on the undersides of the leaf

Spider Mites

•Very small – require a hand lenses to be seen

•Not an insect. Arachnid possessing 8 legs.

•When spider mites feed on fruit can cause a silvery or bronzy sheen called russetting.

•When populations are large a fine webbing may be seen on leaves and needles.

•Prefer hot, dry and dusty environments.

Mites Cont. Several species of mites in our area.

– Common is two-spotted spider mite

• Found on outdoor plants and houseplants.

– Spruce spider mite

• Found on Juniper, Spruce, and other needled-leaf evergreens.

– Clover mite-pest of lawns and weedy areas

• Occurs as periodic lawn pest, and nuisance in spring and

Fall.

Leafhoppers

•Adults a wedge-shaped and about 1/8 inch long

•Leafhoppers over-winter as eggs on twigs, or as adults in protected sites, such as bark crevices.

•Very active – jumping, flying and running when disturbed. •Sucking mouthparts cause stippling, yellow to brown leaves. •Nymphs are considered more damaging than adults

Whitefly

•White Moths with powdery wings 1/10th inch in length

•Eggs are typically laid on the newest leaves. •Piercing-sucking method of feeding produces stippling of leaves •Heavy feeding may wilt and stunt plants •hosts, bean, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, okra, potato, tomato, squash, and sweet potato.

Earworm

•½ inch to1 inch in length •Prefer cool damp places hiding in organic mulch, under bark, in garden debris •Feed on a variety of dead and living organisms, including insects, mites and shoots of plants. •Earwigs also feed on silks of corn, causing poor kernel development.

Chewing Insects

• Loopers, hornworms, leafrollers, cutworms are all larvae of butterflies and moths.

• Control: – Handpick larvae

– Cover with garden blanket

– Bacillus thuringiensis-Bt

– Encourage Beneficial insects

Cabbageworm Butterfly

Army Cutworm

Miller Moth

•Smooth, gray-black with smooth skin

•Can reach 1 ½ inches long

•When disturbed they curl into a C shape

•Caterpillars chew on stems and leaves

•Adult is known “Miller Moth”

Corn Earworm

•1 ¾ inches long

•Light green to brownish black

•Alternating light stripe running down the length of its body

•Chews holes in leaves and fruit

•Eggs laid on the silk

•Adult is a moth and overwinters as a pupa

Cabbage & Alfalfa looper

•Loopers 1 to 1.5”

•feed on leaves

•Female can lay 200-350 eggs over a 12 day period – hatching occurs within 2 weeks

•Larvae will feed 2 to 4 weeks

•Note: plants can lose 20 to 25 percent of their leaf area without a reduction in yield

Hornworm •Large green to brown caterpillars – up to 3-4 inches

•Can defoliate a tomato within days

•Adult is a sphinx moth – known as a hummingbird moth

•Pupa overwinter in the soil

Leafminers

•Larvae a maggot or slug like and burrow between the two layers of tissue

•Adult is a small slender-bodied, grayish, black-haired fly – ¼” long

•Larvae will pupate in the top 3” of soil, but some will stay in the leaf itself

•Can have 3 to 4 generations a year

•Larvae over winter in the soil

University of Minnesota Extension –Karl Foord

The Good Guys – Naturally occurring predators

Lady beetles Snake fly

Pr Green lacewing

Predators available for purchase • Convergent lady beetle

• Spined soldier bug

• Praying mantid eggs

• Green Lacewing Eggs

Companion Planting Planting a variety of flowers will attract many of the beneficial insects.

•Flowers in the sunflower (Asteraceae) family consist of many small flowers which attract many beneficial insects.

•Carrot family (Apiacea)

•Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae)

•Scabiosa family (Dipsaceae)

Benefits of Crop Rotation and litter management

• Crop rotation – More important for disease than

insect control

– minimum is a 4 course crop rotation

• Residue destruction

– Removes host plant material

– Trash

– Contain compost pile

Brassica

Cucurbits

Others

Legumes

Roots

Simple rules for crop rotation: • Don’t follow tomato, peppers or eggplant with

potatoes, or each other. • Allow 3 years before replanting the same group in

any given bed. • Onions may be planted throughout all groups. • Beets, carrots and radishes may be planted among

any group, and replanted as early crops are removed.

• Interplant with companion plants to minimize pesticide use.

• Keep good records so you can duplicate successes.

PennState – Crop Rotation

Incorporating age old techniques

Biochemical Pest Suppression Some plants exude chemicals from roots or aerial parts that suppress or repel pests and protect neighbouring plants. Insect Plants that should deter

Aphid Chives, Coriander, Nasturtium

Ants Tansy

Asparagus Beetle Pot Marigold

Bean Beetle Marigold, Nasturtium, Rosemary

Cabbage Moth Hyssop, Mint (also clothes moths), Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Southernwood, Tansy, Thyme

Insect Plants that should deter

Potato Bugs Horseradish

Mosquitoes Basil, Rosemary

Moths Santolina

Squash Bugs & Beetles Nasturtium, Tansy

Tomato Horn Worm Borage, Pot Marigold

Carrot Fly Rosemary, Sage

Flea Beetle - Catmint, Mint

Flies - Basil, Rue

Japanese beetles - Garlic & Rue (When used near roses and raspberries), Tansy

Wildlife

Wildlife Damage and Management

• Things to know… – Managing nuisance

wildlife is not easy.

– It will take time

– It can be costly

– You need to be persistent and patience.

– And there is no magic wand

N.W.D.S UK

Wanted in 5 neighborhoods

On 17 counts of larceny,

suspect at large with a 3

pound stash of birdseed in

his checks – Birds in

Garden Image

• Before you start the war you need to understand why are they coming to your garden or yard. – You moved into their

territory • Food

• Water

• Shelter

• Now what will you do?

• H-E-R-L – H – Habitat Modification

– E - Exclusion

– R - Removal or Repellent

– L - Lethal Control

• M.T. Mengak

Knowledge is Key in wildlife damage prevention

Mule Deer

Important Facts:

•Generally prefer open space, but very adaptable

•Herbivores – forbs, leaves and twigs

•Size 130 to 280lbs

•Life span – 9 to 11 years

•1 to 2 young per year

•Have better nighttime vision than humans

•1,000 times stronger sense of smell than humans

This is a Chipmunk

R. Miller

California Ground Squirrel Important Facts:

•Generally prefer open space, but very adaptable

•Herbivores

•Will cannibalize

•Live in burrows

•1 litter per year – litter size ~7

•Life span 4 to 5 years

•Currently, zinc phosphide is the only acute rodenticide that is registered by EPA for the control of Belding and California ground squirrels.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel Important Facts:

•Generally prefer open space, but very adaptable

•Herbivores

•Looks like a large chipmunk, but they have no stripe on the face

•Live in burrows

•Seldom do the stance of the chipmunk

•1 litter per year – litter size ~5

This is a Chipmunk

R. Miller

Voles

•Also called meadow, field or pine mice •4 to 8.5 inches long •vary in color from brown to gray •Large colonies •Damage by voles can be reduced by :

•habitat modification •exclusion •Repellents •Trapping •poison grain baits

•http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html

UC IPM Missouri Botanical Garden

Curtis, B, D. Curtis, and W. Miller. 2009

House & Deer Mouse

• http://ucanr.org/sites/ipm//ipmweb/?p=/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74161.html

•House Mouse •vary in color gray, light brown to black •Short hair, with small eyes and large ears •Life span 9 to 12 months

•Deer Mouse •Two-tone, brown to grey on top with a white belly. Tail 50/50 tan and white •Start reproducing at 6 weeks of age •Prefer seeds, but will eat fruits, invertebrates and fungi

Woodrats Important Facts:

•Also known as pack rats, bushy tailed wood re and trade rat

•Active at night

•Build stick dens on the ground or in trees

•Herbivores, green vegetation, twigs and shoots

•1 litter per year – litter size ~ 4

Rats

• Nocturnal

• Requires water daily

• Will travel several hundred feet from nest

• Prefer to travel on edges

• Wary of new objects in the environment

• They can jump, swim and squeeze into and through almost anything

• Will eat pipes, wire, blocks, and whatever necessary to get to food

Mice

• Nocturnal

• Generally get water from food source

• Will travel long distances from nest

• Prefer to travel on edges

• Not wary of new objects in the environment

• They can jump, swim and squeeze into and through almost anything

• Live outside, in homes a sheds

Moles

Important Facts: •live in underground runways

•Seldom seen above the ground

•Runways 5 to 20” deep

•Prefer loose, moist soil

•4 to 8” long - Blind

•Carnivores – earthworms, grubs, beetles, insect larvae

•Can eat 40lbs of food a day

•Single litter – 3 to 5

•Life span – 3 years

Quail

Important Facts:

•Generally prefer open space during breeding

•Omnivorous, but tent to be vegetarians looking for seed and seedlings

•1 clutch per year – clutch size ~12 eggs

•When quail reach 2 months old they can breed

•Life span 3 – 5 years

Cottontail Rabbits

Important Facts: •Generally prefer open space, shrub or bush filled areas or any backyard urban or rural. •Herbivores •Live in existing cavities or burrows excavated by others •Territory about ~10 acres •multiple litters per year – litter size ~5-6 •Lifespan 12 – 15 months •Carry fleas

Resources

• http://icwdm.org/handbook/index.asp

• www.ipm.ucdavis.edu

• Nevada Department of Wildlife

– http://www.ndow.org/

• 775-688-1500 Reno office

• For general questions or comments ndowinfo@ndow.org

• Nevada Department of Agriculture

– http://agri.state.nv.us/

• 405 South 21st Street, Sparks, NV 89431

• 775-353-3638