Make your yard ‘bee-friendly’! It’s everywhere in the news these days. So how can you keep your garden a haven for pollinators of all types? 1. Keep it blooming – all season long Have lots of different blooming plants – annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, even weeds (ahem — wildflowers) for ample pollen and nectar for…Continue Reading Best Bets for Bees
Beware This Beetle: It Is B-A-D
This year New York celebrated its first Invasive Species Awareness Week. Across the state, organizations and communities rallied to educate people about the damage caused by invaders. They gave workshops on pest ID. They even pulled weeds. Awareness Week was a great success, serving as a reminder for year-round vigilance in dealing with invasive species….Continue Reading Beware This Beetle: It Is B-A-D
Tis the Zzzzzzzzzz Season
After a long winter, warm weather is a welcome change. But no season is perfect. The air is abuzz with the zzzzzzzzzzz’ing of mosquitoes, a small insect that more than makes up for its size in its capacity to annoy. But mere annoyance is not the extent of the problem with mosquitoes. Itching and swelling…Continue Reading Tis the Zzzzzzzzzz Season
Watch for Pine Sawflies
Notice needle damage on pine trees? Look close. It may be caused by conifer-feeding sawflies. Sawflies feeding on Scotch pine Sawflies? As larvae they look caterpillars which might develop into moths, their name implies they’ll be flies, but they actually become non-stinging wasps as adults. And the saw? As adult wasps the females cut slits in…Continue Reading Watch for Pine Sawflies
Why Is This Grass Weak?
Let me count the ways. First, a little perspective – this is the front lawn of a school that was just renovated. There was little money to invest in the lawn and even less to help the struggling lawn. Problem #1: Compaction This area was the staging area for the equipment and material storage during…Continue Reading Why Is This Grass Weak?
Green Lacewing a Good one!!
That green fluttery insect near your porch light at night — with wings like green lace? That’s a green lacewing. Lacewings are beneficials — good insects, ones that prey on insects you don’t want. Actually, what you’ve seen is an adult lacewing; it feeds on flower nectar, pollen, and aphid honeydew. It’s the lacewing larvae…Continue Reading Green Lacewing a Good one!!
Dandelions — Love Them or Leave Them, but Don’t Spray Them
It’s May, and lawns across NY are speckled with golden jewels – jewels that provide a valuable early pollen source for our native pollinators and whose leaves and roots are loaded with nutrients. Or — our lawns are splotched by a horrible weed besmirching their beauty, a beacon to shame lax householders. It’s really all…Continue Reading Dandelions — Love Them or Leave Them, but Don’t Spray Them