Month: June 2017

Pruning berry bushes to minimize destructive pest habitat

  • Author By Karen English
  • Publication date June 28, 2017
  • (Updated On June 28, 2017)

Examine your caneberry (raspberries and blackberries) plantings for conditions that promote spotted wing drosophila (SWD) infestation and take steps to eliminate them. Although we cannot change the weather, we can alter conditions in the planting to reduce the cool, dark, humid areas preferred by SWD. Pruning and training systems can help maintain an open canopy…Continue Reading Pruning berry bushes to minimize destructive pest habitat

It’s Pollinator Week. Read All About It.

  • Author By Mary M. Woodsen
  • Publication date June 19, 2017
  • (Updated On June 22, 2020)

When we think about bees, we mostly think about honeybees … a European native brought here by the very first colonists. Now honeybees are struggling, hammered by a constellation of 20-plus diseases and parasites — not to mention a range of insecticides and fungicides. About 450 species of wild bees also populate our fields and…Continue Reading It’s Pollinator Week. Read All About It.

Tick Trickery and Lyme Disease: the Great Imitator? Sometimes.

  • Author By Mary M. Woodsen
  • Publication date June 16, 2017
  • (Updated On October 26, 2020)

Remember the days when we could play with our tykes in tall grass near a wooded hedgerow? When we could wander at will through open meadows, picking wildflowers? When we could have impromptu picnics in the shade of tall oaks and basswoods deep in wild violets and leaf litter where a park blended into a…Continue Reading Tick Trickery and Lyme Disease: the Great Imitator? Sometimes.

Invasives are pests! Learn more at our July IPM conference.

  • Author By Mary M. Woodsen
  • Publication date June 7, 2017
  • (Updated On July 28, 2020)

We tend to default to bugs — to insects — when we think about pests. But plant diseases and weeds are pests too. And all threaten our fields and farms, our forests and streams, our homes and workplaces. Pests provide no end of challenges — especially pests that come from afar. Among IPM’s strengths? Researching…Continue Reading Invasives are pests! Learn more at our July IPM conference.