Focus 580; Insect Control

We're also pleased to welcome back to the show Phil Nixon. He's an extension entomologist at University of Illinois someone who is here from time to time to answer questions about insect control. So if you're having a problem this can be something in the house can be something in the home landscape in your garden. All you have to do is call in and give us the best description of what it is. So the fill can get idea what it is we're talking about. And then he can advise you on how to get rid of it or as I like sometimes to say also to peacefully co-exist if that's possible because I know often he's he's said to people now is this something to do you really have to get rid of this. Can you live with this. He sometimes even suggests Webbie how people can live with it but if the bottom line is you have to get rid of it. He can tell you how to do that. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 here in Champaign Urbana toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Thanks very much for being here. Glad to be here again. Looks like the phones are full. They're all lit up so why don't we go to the first line and the first callers in white Heath on our line. Number one. Hello.

Hi I have a bug is outside and it lives in this really sunny area of my yard right by the garage. And it looks like it looks like a bee in a way but it it's not a bumblebee or anything it's got about a 1 and a half to two inch long body. I just was out looking at it and it has striped black and yellow striped tail and it's got big wings. And when it's very intimidating when you're over you go out there a whole bunch from that. I think they live in the ground or something then they get out of the ground and they sort of buzz around and and I don't know if they're dangerous if they're going to bite or. If they're just stopped because you came close to where they're living there I don't know what it is. But I think what you've come across is one of what I'd like to see talk about is one of the signs of July. This sounds like cicada killer. And yeah the females will nest underground and and you'll find a hole. It's about as big around as your

finger going down into the ground with a little bit of loose soil around it looks like a man here only not have quite as much soil and holes bigger and what the females will do is that they will find a cicada or other large insect sting and paralyze it drag it down into their burrow lay an egg on it covered her up dig another burrow do it all over again the bag hatches out the larvae eats the still alive but paralyzed insect and over winters down there and comes out the next year. Do it all over again. Now the thing gets interesting is that the is that the males establish aerial territories and these may be. Maybe 50 or 100 feet of a cross or something like this and and what they will do is as you are walking across an area you will invade their territory and they will check you out to see if you are one of two things either a female cicada killer that can be mated with or a male cicada killer needs to be driven away but the but what will happen is that all of a sudden here's a

sentient half long was hovering in the air in front of your eyes and then you normally zips to the side and then the back and then around a side and figures out that you're not a cicada killer and so you're useless in his life and leave you alone. You walk across the yard under 50 feet you run into another area it happens all over again when you come back they do it all over again and so are intimidating. I have to monitor the. The males are incapable of staying only female wasps and bees can sting it because it's a modified egg laying device males just don't have the equipment. So the ones that are most many many menacing really menacing minutes and menacing are not going to cause any harm. They cannot sting you. The females could but they are very reluctant to I've known of 3 cases in my 25 years of doing this type of work where people got stung to grab hold on bare headed one step on one barefoot. So yeah I know the words you could hassle these a lot in fact as a child growing up south of Springfield I used to enjoy

filling their holes with with the Earth particularly if I could catch the female gone gone down in there. Course she dug her right out again I was kind of fun and I really should have got stung for all of that but I never did. Now they're pretty yeah yeah usually they're a problem in bare soil areas so if you have good good ground cover turf whatever they're less likely to be there. If they're really a problem to you you can you can treat the nest individually with Carbery or Sevendust but enjoy what we really recommend as Lee Malone because we're not going to hurt anything and they're just part of nature and doing their thing and you do yours in co-exist. OK well that when I get back. Yeah you do that I've had hundreds of people say we're doing it and I've got no calls returned yet. Thank you for the call. So on average how many cicadas does your average cicada killer kill. I really don't know for sure but I would assume it's probably in a range of

probably eight or 10 I would guess it doesn't. So and then they also an interesting thing is that they have their own little parasites that will tend to get in and lay its own egg on the on the dead cicada and and and will can and will kill them eat the egg of the cicada killer or kill it in one way or another and kind of take advantage of a situation so you know it's not only there it's getting the cicadas but sometimes there are other little tiny holes smaller wafts that get them and and all that sort of thing but. But yeah they will they will take out several cicadas and of course in general they're they're attacking the dog day or annual cicadas you hear in the evening which are not numerous enough to really be a problem we look at it was more of an interesting aspect in nature rather than anything harms the trees in any significant way. I was just thinking that that sounds like you would actually have to have an awful lot of cicada killers to put much of a dent in the numbers of exactly this exact I mean you know you know you think about it from a

labor standpoint you've got to dig a hole that's six to eight inches deep down on the ground every time you're going to get one cicada. You know we're talking about a significant amount of work here for a little for a little bug here to take advantage of. OK let's go to line number two and this is someone in our band. I for a number of years ran around we've been having problems with a insect that looks something like a lot but it's completely black we've been referring to it as a planet. And I traced it back to some nests that are inside sheds that we had at least I think that's where they live and they they tend to build these mud nests. They're kind of a nuisance and I have to scrape them out once in awhile but in terms of whether or not I can actually live with these things I think it you can help me because I really don't know whether or not they. Sting I also think that maybe what these things are carved is not Hornets but

these would be my daughters and they will typically make. We have two main groups of these my daughters in Illinois one makes kind of a nest it looks kind of like a mud Patty up against the wall a couple inches across an inch and a half wide or so and the other one is called an organ pipe mud Dobber which will make a long narrow pieces of strands of mud that are usually about a quick three eighths of an inch in diameter and about five inches longer smiled at first because I think that's what has it's just called the mud Dobber and either of both of these are in the same family as the cicada killer we just answer to ask about this facet wasps and they are also similarly reluctant to staying. If they do they can sting. You know you grab a hold of one. Hit it with your hand and hold your hand against it. Yeah he's going to sting if you do that to be all bite and if I could sting I would too. Yeah. But but generally they're not going to

be a problem. You could knock down a nest during winter time. Generally when they're inside a building like that the secret is restricting their access because they've got to come in and out all the time. So it's in a garage. Keep the door open all the time usually a real easy answer that is just clean the door closed you know it's a shared made it doesn't have real good when they're senators and there's no way to keep them out entirely even if they can they can crawl through a narrow opening. There's like I just can't stop up those openings today in fact I have trouble keeping my side of the shed. OK. I would I would coexist with them if you feel you can if you feel you can't then you can buy an aerosol wasp and hornet spray kind of stake out the place when the female comes to the nest zapper and a knockdown in the nest. OK well I just I've been knocking down the nest as I see them is there anything wrong with knocking them down in the summertime. No except that they just keep rebuild them. Oh I see. And occasionally you get on have you finally put two and two together and go somewhere else.

I've been wondering is spraying the one of the inside walls of the shed would deter them in any way. Not likely because those sprays on that kind of a surface are going to last very long and plus the insects really aren't the most wasps are are pretty hard shelled and so they don't pick up insecticide for their feet like say a housefly does and so you're not going to get much control on that and not much a repellent seekers are going to the insect size they're going to last long and that surface. Now they should sting someone. Is it just a prick or do they own. Have a poison like formic acid in there. Do they have a venom and they have a venom associated with it in again how you react depends on how your how you're made and what your genetics are right. OK all right thank you very much thinks it's called Let's go here next to the line number four and that would be Aurora. Hello. Yes I want to. I do want to talk about ants and I've met with them and they don't come in the house when I write my

back patio and I really don't want to kill them. What could I do. Not have them around my door so I don't kill them. Well ants are so common and so frequent around in in most United States that really there are going to be there regardless of what you do and I don't know of any repellents that are going to be effective in keeping them away various types of ant steaks and so on have a toxic give in it which kill the ants. I don't know of probably the best way to keep them from building nests and so on that that come up through cracks in the patio and so on would be to seal the cracks in the patio. I don't know what I am going that would be the best thing I don't know of anything that you're going to be able to repel them away from an area with an outdoors answer very beneficial helping to recycle nutrients in the

soil and so on and actually do more soil turnover in the area's landscape then then the earthworms do so there actually are quite beneficial and I think the kind I don't want them by my back door because they build a nest of huge nets by my act. Well you either have a choice of killing them or living with them I don't know of any repellant associated for all k. Could you give me the scientific name for that insect that's a vampire. What was that insect you were speaking about. What's the first call of a cicada killer. Yeah and that they respect came and took advantage of the cicada killer. OK that would be a that would be a parasitic wasp and probably in the family Chow city I would guess. But there are several families of parents who want to know what what is it called scientifically when one can't say all that they have to have another insect doing.

This would probably be where you could call it. Many times you call this brood parrot citizen or nest pair citizen. It's somewhat analogous to to the cowbirds putting eggs in warmer ness than in Yatton the warbling so you don't worry. That's called that and it would be called a similar sort of thing. Sometimes it's called. We usually usually it's call has a is called pierced his I'm a one sort or another but normally this is called called brood pears TISM or host pairs tism. Is it a symbiotic thank. Well in general even all parents TISM is considered to be part of symbiosis because symbiosis means two animals living together whether one is being killed by the other or not. Eventually the point is they are living together at least for a while so it would be considered a part of symbiosis. But it is it is pretty one sided so it would not be what would be called Mutual is a mutualistic in which both sides get a good benefit from the arrangement save the save the algae and a fungus and making up a lichen for instance that's mutual ism. But

but this would be a type of Paris TISM in which one one side of the relationship is getting a lot more benefit than the other. If that I want to talk about term I have to read it to know what great about action about termites. I don't think there's a thing that's cheap about termites. Either their damage or their control. But within the last couple years three years or so there's been a new product come on the market and it's presold of a brand name of term adore t e r m i d r and it along with the medical approach or premise which has been around for several years. Are our effective barrier treatments that will help keep the termites out and the termites cannot detect insecticide so it works much more effective than understand it. You mean they come from the outside and I certainly termites that are not part of the country are all subterranean or ness or down in the soil and the termites come into the house from the soil. They do not nest inside the house they only do

that in the southern part of United States down along the Gulf Coast and on in California and so on where it's warmer. There you have dry wood termites and damp wood termites which can establish a nest inside a building with DS. What we have here primarily is Eastern subterranean termite which makes a colony in the soil. So one method of control is to provide a barrier around your house that they can't cross to get in it's an insecticide which will keep the workers as they try to come into the house. OK thank you so much. Thanks for the call our guest this morning is Phil Nicks an extension entomologist at the U of I. Every once in a while he's here and we give you a chance to call in to ask questions about dealing with insect pests around the home could be something inside could be something in the garden in the yard. We draw the line at field crops. If you've got soybean and corn we can help you there but everything else for the for your average homeowner. You give us a call tell us about the problem. I know Phil will see if he can help you out 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5

Pyatt can I guess maybe Pike County is next to line number three. Hello. Good morning. Yes I have a couple. Question number one when we open our cupboards even cupboards that have dishes in them not just food stuff a small mosque. I believe very often flies out and we keep all of our food stuffs in plastic bags or a closed container and they just never seem to go away I mean it's not like a you know infestation of thousands. But there's always one going around and I just wonder what that is and is there a way to get rid of it. Chances are what you're seeing is Indian meal MAF which will create a Moffat's. The adult is about a quarter of an inch long with a half inch wingspan. If you see a pristine one it will have kind of a gray band across the center of a body in kind of a reddish brown in the wings. They lose their scales in the circular very quickly. They will develop in grain products and other types of

stored food such as not only grain products such as oatmeal corn meal cereal this sort of thing but will also get into chocolate dried fruit dried nuts and types of things as well. And. You mention plastic bags what will happen is that the is that many plastic bags have a minute to openings along there seems. You can tell that by taking your typical plastic bag punch it under water and chances are you'll get a leak. And many of them will and what will happen is the office able to detect of the growing older right there at that point lays an egg right there of the hatching larva small enough to tunnel through and then when the larva gets to be half inch long and fully grown it is able to make its own hole for a plastic bag and get out. That may be part of what you're seeing but very likely Also you may have some spilled material about in cracks and crevices in the cupboard that if you used a vacuum to vacuum up and dispose of vacuum material that may reduce that food source as well. Particularly if you're

living in a you know how in a house that somebody else has had before a pre-owned house. You know there may have been stuff it's spilled back behind in the walls or something like this it could be coming from it's a variety of things that could be possible. So they'll also feed on dry dog and cat food so that can be a source as well sometimes bird seed is an awful awful awful source. So these are and the control of all of these is putting things in airtight containers glass jars Tupperware. OK vacuum out to crafts cracks and crevices. But your plastic bags are probably not doing a computer that's good. Now the second thing is Am I the first to get a mention. Japanese beetles. Yeah I was there I had no prize. I didn't find gardening a natural remedy that said to take leave from Larkspur delphiniums and throw him in a blender and mix that with a gallon of water and spray it on the Japanese beetles and it killed one beetle completely dead and I was just wondering is there because of the chemical in the leaves I was wondering is that

really stupid or. Well I think it's in my opinion it's a method that is not going to be very particularly fish and you can kill probably more beetles the same way on contact easier by by purchasing insecticide off soap and spraying it. And both that and this material will probably have the same effect in it you will have very little if any residual activity which means that 15 minutes later a beetles are coming to the plant are not harmed at all. Yeah that was what I was wondering. And then my question was about 7 is that we do have little bees flying around and isn't 7 Paktika honeybee 7 is very toxic to BS honeybees and other bees as well. OK and for that reason we recommended one not spray plants that are in flower. OK generally if you're spraying just the foliage of a plant it's unlikely that the bees will find it. It's more likely if that plant has to be in flower and you keep an awful flowers but generally for plant spraying plants that do not have any flowers on them at all.

The chances of the bees finding it is relatively slim apparently because we don't have bee kills from this type of application in agriculture production agriculture or in homeowner situations so we feel pretty safe on that. OK and then the last thing was that I was outside of the day and I saw this huge I looked it up was a Buckeye butterfly. And very cute they got nice I suppose tempi it was so beautiful and there were two of them and I believe they were mating but that happens. I don't want to be rude but they were there for hours and hours and still there after 9 o'clock at night so where they were resting or well commonly made eone in insects is very variable sometimes there are some insects that can that will mate in just a few seconds but it's not uncommon for for partners to be hooked together for hours. OK not always is there sperm transfer occurring during that whole time. One factor that occurs in many insects and I am not sure if it occurs in butterflies I know a

dozen dragon flies. It's important too for a male to to keep the female occupied should we say because at least a dragon flies. The last male to mate with her is the one whose sperm fertilizes the egg. So the early bird here does not get his progeny. And this is why you many times see dragonflies and damsel flies flying like Intamin where one is hanging on to another in damsel flies or dragon flies they'll be two together. The male is garden a female from other males coming in and fertilizing her eggs before she lays his eggs that he has fertilized. So I would have expected probably of a long time of being joined together is one way if you're joined together there's no way a male is going to get in there and another of my own fertilise So that's probably a good share of a reason for the long period of time. OK well thank you so much for your information. Very good thanks for the call. Just before things got going Phil and I were talking a bit about Japanese beetles and you said that the reports are kind of there certainly

here but the reports are kind of variable that there are some places where there have a lot of them and other places where maybe not so many. Yeah we normally see them coming out in the last week of June and this year of it came out in this part of the state in the first report was the 13th of June which was a couple weeks early probably our hot weather we had in early June in late May or 90 degree temperatures brought them out early. But we are seeing them spotty certainly areas around Bloomington we've had a lot of reports of very high numbers. My own yard is very light. Some others in the Champaign-Urbana area tend to be light. They're there but they're not very numerous compared to what they have been in the past. I'm not really sure why that is. We may be sometimes insects come out in just a spotty distribution. But we've also had some reports from particularly of state of Ohio and some other areas. Michigan etc. in which the Beatles tend to come out over a period of time I started noticing that about two years ago I haven't seen

that in this state much. And so they come out they're some of the Beatles come out later in July and will lay eggs later and you end up getting white grubs of various sizes as a result. Again I haven't seen it in Illinois haven't heard about an Illinois but maybe we're starting to see that occur and it may be a reason why some areas are having fewer. There may be more to come. I think your recommendation was hearing this talk about this in the past is that for those particular plants and there are some well there there never rests. There are certain things that they really like if you plan it they will come. And so I guess that the issue is if if there are some particular plants that you really want to guard against damage you can treat those. Otherwise you're saying you know pick them off if you can be sparing in your use of insecticide. And the chances are whatever damage they do they're not going to kill the plant. Right they normally are going to they're not going to kill the plant they're going to. And what you do is you look and see

what are the plants that are attacking that are really important to your landscape. The rose next to the back door of the crab apple next to the front door are things that are very obvious that you really want to protect. We recommend spraying every two weeks with Carbery also to seven are Lutheran which is sold as bare advance garden. Tree and secular I believe multi and secular I believe is what it's called and this will probably need three sprays two weeks apart to give good control because they're pretty well gone by the time we get in mid August or so. You can hand pick from often just poking at them they'll drop into a jar of alcohol or soapy water and this will help particularly if you get on them early because the Beatles change hosts a fly to a new host every three days and if you keep off the host they will tend to go to a new host of or even fed on if you keep yours from being fed on much. Now go to the neighbor instead which is fine. And you but you select the plants that

you really want to protect and those that even though they may be hidden in the heart of their back towards back in by the alley or in an area it's not that important part of your landscape. I suggest the reducing amount of insecticide use don't spray those and concentrate on the plants you're trying to protect. It really won't make a biro lot of difference how many how much white grubs you have how much damage you have in other parts your yard because when these beetles change hosts they fly anywhere from three quarters to a mile and a half and certainly the distance between your backyard your front yard is not going to be important when you've got beetles flying IFR. Yeah and if it does if you don't have huge numbers on you hey you have the time you can certainly go out and manually remove them. Use the old can a soapy water technique and that actually does work. Yes it does or you can just put up with them I mean you know if even though you may have kind of your signature plant in your front yard that they normally hidden and are really hit hard you know if they're just a few up there and are not causing a whole lot of damage is not really

all that noticeable. You know relax don't worry about it. If they start keep your eye on it if they start really showing up and heavy then you can spray and you may save yourself one or two sprays in that method or you may save all three. Next color here is in Danville line 1. Hello. Yeah good morning. Well I got a couple three questions. You mentioned something about the term Commodore. Yes. Is that something that can be purchased by an individual or does that have to be done by a licensed applicator. That's only done by a license applicator are no what I would consider to be very effective barrier treatments or even Bates for that matter that are available for over-the-counter they're all available through pest control companies. OK my primary question today is. I've got an infected showed up last Friday and since then it's just really multiplied exponentially and it's look through all my books cannot find it in the face of a housefly. It's on the sweet corn and the keening it goes after the

bloom of the cane and the leaves on the sweet corn. It's very body kind of against flies. How many yellowish with black stripes now. Now it's a dark brown with just a real light gray trim on it and I think the coloring kind of reminds you a little bit of a lightning bug. But it's a very small you know place the house five very boxy and shape a rectangular but I mean it's like almost square in a way. Square a tangle. You know it's going to take it into the extension office because I cannot reference it anywhere and that you're not seeing any yellow on the wings at all. Now now it's possible I'm not sure what it is it's possible it could be a soldier beetle and soldier beetles are as larvae are predators but as adults or pollen feeders and they would be attracted to both locations for pollen. And if they're eating everything OK if they're eating the leaves have their eating they're eating the leaves and the blooms and they're just really ripping into are you located in Champaign-Urbana or are you

referring nest over here in Danville. OK. Because in the in the western part of Illinois northwest up near Monmouth and so on we get a false Japanese beetle that fits your description to a T. Never heard of it much in this part of the state. It will look like a Japanese B you know if you're inferior with those that will really be drab looking now this is OK. They have this is it's not a beetle I don't think and it doesn't look like a beetle. Your head to send it in. OK. We're not meshing on description I could probably recognize if I saw it but I'm not really not really thinking what can really come up with it. Sure and I've also got it's not a real problem. But I've got a caterpillar that's like a half to three quarters and long it's yellow that are almost such a bright yellow it's almost an orange and blue. It'll grow half to three quarters of a dense and it is eating the leaves while leaves that one cabbage of cabbage. Yeah OK well there is the probably what you're seeing is the zebra Caterpillar zebra cabbage worm I think. SEABROOK caterpillar I believe it's called.

Or zebra cabbage worm. It's we're used to the to the green caterpillars that made Lucas cabbage Looper are the ones that look kind of velvety vats imported cabbage worm. But we also have the zebra cabbage worm which will which has to be yellow and many and does have some blue on it and has the long gaited stripes and it will get on on the plants as well it's not very common and is easily controlled with the bacillus or in Gensis core stock even dipolar thorough side just like the other caterpillars are well I'm I'm doing hand picking either way. I'm doing an organic farm up here so it's. Chemicals around as there are natural predators enable BTK as normally organic accepted because it's a bacterial toxin it's not a chemical that's produced by humans. So my understanding is normally that's what's used certainly wrote known would knock him off which And so would insecticide Also if you hit him with it although it's hard to get surfaces covered on a cabbage that way.

Right. OK thank you very much. Thank you. We are a little bit past your midpoint again I introduce our guest Phil Nixon. He's an extension and I'm ologist at the U.N. and for many years now he's been stopping by a couple times a year to talk about dealing with insect passed around the home. Give us a call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 Next up is someone in Belgium. Line 2 0 0 0. I'd like to a bring up the topic of a new eastern test we may be looking into. And that's the gypsy moth. Last year somebody from an official looking car walked down on my property and put a little triangular nest on a oak tree I had. And they came back sometime in the future from that and carried it away right now. I had been doing it since the early 70s. Yeah and I'm not at all trying to you know equate these two things but this

year that oak tree didn't look very good. Do we have gypsy moths around here very much. Not if here is the central Illinois we do have them established in Lake County which is the most northeastern county in the state. And they are fighting the battle quite heavily right now a new page in Cook County which are also Chicago metro areas to try to slow the spread which is of what the program's called to try to keep them out of this part of the state. But no we do not know we have gypsies here but depending on on funding they try to they try to treat they try to trap the state throughout every other year for up to state and they have been doing that since the early 70s and have found small infestations that they have been able to eliminate successfully. With. And he just eventually got into a metro area from infestations in Wisconsin and Michigan so you know the only part of AG isn't a very good job but they do put out these

BS triangular traps that are about six or eight inches long about three inches on a side. There either are bright red orange or else they're a lime green and they'll be a pheromone in their little tract if a male gypsy from as much as a mile away as a way of detecting if they're in the area of the trap would not have been any indication on the healthier tree nor would it be an indicator if you had tipped him off on your tree. In this part of the state there have been a public meeting about you would have known about it. They probably had a helicopter overhead to spring spraying a couple times so it's not in this area but they're watching for it. By the way these traps are put out. They've always had a right of trespass to put these out and to pick them up to check on them. But after 9/11 with Homeland Security they even have more so so so actually you know if any of the listeners find one of these on a place where it really doesn't fit or anything there's if you can you can contact somebody and they will come out move the trap.

That's why I was concerned about that because I knew what traps were. But I was asked but not for other people. Yeah. When tipsy monts attacked an oak tree which is their prevalent species do they totally kill the tree or can the tree come back from it. Tree normally will survive three years of total defoliation before succumbing if it's in a if it's in a landscape. Those in a forest actually survive and it's not a gypsy moth is not a serious mortality factor in most forests that will take out the stress that they put on by by defoliation they typically defoliate in sets of three years at a time. Will will kill off those trees in a forest that are weak. Getting old being shaded out. Whatever the case may be. But but in towns and cities the we have enough other stresses on the trees such as soil compaction salt from my from snow and so on. Things of this

nature that impact the health of the tree sidewalks covering root systems things like that that usually three years of defoliation a row will kill the tree and so generally in areas where of the gypsy my office come in and has been there for a long time such as in the in the northeast what we've seen is a change in the urban forest away from oaks and this is happened because through only natural factors a gypsy moth taken him out but also synthetic in that you don't want to plant another tree is just going to be. So you pick something in a jiffy Musto like and that really eventually drops the numbers and drops the problem. I say thank you very much. Thank you. On to another call here next person is going to be Chicago line number four. Hello. I'm I got a problem that's puzzled me I had an experience with a device for catching mosquitoes years ago a head on right and it had a fan that somebody lost star on. Yeah usually what they would do is suck them into either a chamber or onto a sticky board to get

it that they had here to one of the two. I don't know how commercially available those are. I know they were popular for a while they are still used by by mosquito control companies. They're one of the common names for them is the New Jersey light trap which will have a fan which sucks the mosquitoes in attracted to a light at night and it's a way of determining what how many mosquitoes are out in broad terms and what species are out and it's used by by mosquito control companies and all whether an area has a high enough number of mosquito swarm control. If you know in a in an eye PM fashion ravin just spraying you know every week or whatever. But whether they're I have not seen them advertised for a while. I will tell you that that their effectiveness as far as keeping you from being in bed is going to be relatively light because what will happen is that mosquitoes may be attracted to the city. But if you have a female looking

for a blood meal she's going to maybe be attracted into your yard from a neighbor's yard. But then she's going to look for blood not go all the way to the trap. So they are a good way of telling which mosquitoes are out because they will attract males and they will attract older females so they'll know what species abundance is and so on but they're not really going to going to eliminate the mosquito problems of biting you get hurt. Unit tracked it to two people because of the carbon dioxide in the breath. There's a variety of things that's one thing they're attracted to large dark objects so wearing like clothing is helps. They are into a mosquito all of us are large. You know and they're also attracted lactic acid which are which are pores exude for muscle exertion and also to carbon dioxide so and and usually it's a large top dark object from a distance as they get closer it's lactic acid and as they're looking for a place to actually buy to tend to switch to looking for carbon

dioxide. Well if I put it you know dry ice in a device like that it would give off carbon dioxide slowly or it's Reich would it have to be used in another mosquito trap that is used by pest control companies. Right there we have a do what is has a tank of gas in it. It actually what they will do is they'll put a cute typically what they try to be as low tech as possible so what they do is they will use a a cube of dry ice and it just uses up but exudes carbon dioxide for a couple days or three days and then check traps twice a week so you just replace carbon dioxide but even dry ice. Of course you can buy the mosquito magnets and similar materials that have to use propane to produce carbon dioxide. And those are commercially available although again they have not been tested fully enough to know whether they're all that effective in reducing the number of bytes that you have. I love to hear that they're spraying for mosquitoes. And care experience in places like characters

that affect where they breed. It is particularly for disease carrying mosquitoes the ones that are transmitting West Nile virus and St. Louis and satellite as they are contain are breeding mosquitoes are going to be in tree holes clogged gutters old tires tin cans ran catch basins and many times what they will do is is spray the catch basins or apply or put in a BT bacillus urn Gensis Israeli ense this material which is a bacteria which will kill the developing larvae and Annette's or bacillus varicose which works better against the insects that the mosquitoes the trance Midwest now and they will treat catch basins and many of mosquito abatement issues with this for years and it does help. That's right. Very much things as might have been my experience of that hasn't been so bad year for mosquitoes so far. It is that is the dry conditions actually having an effect on numbers of mosquitoes.

Yes and No. Certainly it does. The what'll happen is if we have a lot of rain fall we will get the east the flood water mosquitos 80s vacs sands which will which will be a real problem attacking in large numbers buzzy new years driving you inside all that sort of thing but they're typically not disease carriers usually not whereas the ones that will catchment when our virus and saying was a sefl itis is Culex pipiens and our in-house mosquito. And it really starts to come in its own when it gets hot and dry in late June. It has a very close related species which tends to be more numerous Culex restaurants which which Moos can can move the virus from bird to bird. And then and then the few lectures pipiens bites both birds and humans so will transmit bird diseases such as West Nile virus and same as a satellite as two people and they will their cause they

are present from early spring. They become much more numerous through July August and into September and so and they like putrid water which is really nasty smelling and and they actually don't do as well when it rains a lot and the water gets too fresh and clean. They really like it nasty so very occasional rains with hot dry weather in between is just perfect for that mosquito in our conditions we've got now would make us and time of year it's getting to be. We need to be watchful and concerned about being bit. And these are little sneaky mosquitoes that you normally don't notice and their little brown mosquito usually don't buzzy or just come in and land and feed so you've got to be wearing DEET repellent says helpful and her other repellents that can be effective and these will. These will help protect you and and watch getting bitten in the evening particular when it's mosquitoes flying. OK again two other contests are banned on line 3. Hello. Line 3.

I heard you're talking about my daughters as I was driving. Remind me of a thing that came up a few years ago with my stepdad. He was complaining about a vent pipe on his sanitary system being stopped up at my daughter's and I told him I don't think it's public and I don't think a mud Dobber would build a home work of sky above was I wrong. I've heard of that as well. I really don't know for sure. These weren't all verified and I'm aware of. But but I think that probably a mud Dobber might might do that although we have small enough numbers of problems of that occurring and I think that it's probably not very common how is that for a roundabout answer. Yeah I just figured if they build for the sky because rain can come from the most certainly they're going to want to be protected as you might guess you make a nest out of mud and you get a lot of water on it you've got a problem. So so the so you would not expect it to happen although I have heard of them and certainly other creatures will build mud nests where rain can get on them

such as. Such as chimney swifts and things of that nature so found it was rust so they would probably prefer not to but I wouldn't put it past them. I raised scorched pumpkins and things every year and every year I have these root maggots. What can I do about a man when should I do. Well typically rude maggots are all they are going to be the larvae of a fly and an interesting feature of the fly needs is that apparently in order to lay its eggs it needs to touch soil with its with its feet its tarsi and anything you can do to keep the fly from being able to touch the soil next your plants will reduce the number root maggots and so a floating row covers which you can put on early new year typically the the unsexy are going to attack in the spring of the year. So from the time the plants come up to maybe when they start to bloom you need to have those roll covers off for pollination from bees and so on. Those would probably help. You can also. Anything that you lay down

alongside the plants to cover the soil. Some people use newspapers you can use window screen. Some people use aluminum foil things of that nature anything that will keep the fly from being able touch the soil will greatly reduce the number of maggots. OK thank you very. We continue here in Mexico or is in Potomac and line number one. Hello. Thank you for taking my call. I have been noticing that these huge numbers of your week. My backyard and my water hose down and doesn't have an end on it. So when I turn it on next they wash out a couple of them and you know you're lucky it's not 70. I don't go into it but they kind of yeah I don't know to people who couldn't get anything to come out of their hose because there were so many your wigs in it had to shake it and bounce it around a little bit next mere weeks before the water come for it.

Well maybe you were playing a dangerous. No they're not dangerous they feed primarily on organic matter since they will feed on fleas they feed have very broad feed habits but they will feed on green plants a little bit. Typically flowers the petals particularly of flowers and and we men many times will recommend Carbery or seven on the foliage part of a plant to help reduce that if that's a problem but generally. These little guys which for those people who haven't had the pleasure are about five eighths of an inch long and kind of reddish brown with pictures on the back and they're not going to come in the House are not going to reproduce in the house they don't maintain in the house. They don't make more in the house and outdoors they just kind of feed on dead material primarily. And and if you can live with it that's probably easy thing. No more earwigs and you've got you know they're all people like the looks of them I tell people though they don't like looks at you either but you know it's they're really not going to harm anything and normally you don't need to do anything for control.

Seems to me that they are looking particularly sleek and fat this year and there are a lot of them and I see more and I sometimes see saw as maybe a good year for him and chances are they will cycle and maybe numerous for three years or so and then become less so. OK well thank you. All right thank you. To Mohamed next line to fellow Hi fell I live in a wooden house it's Redwood it's got a redwood construction decks and things like that and in fact infested by a bumblebee the Bumblebee seems to burrow a perfectly round almost three eighths inch hole. But what happens is. They hollow out the machine into which they they burrow and and they seem to know when they're close to the wall because it never pops back out. All you see is the little hole where they go in and I just wonder are they doing structural damage number one. Number two is there anything in particular that I could do or should do about it.

They're doing some structural damage. These are carpenter bees and they will tunnel as much as a couple feet up a beam. And if you have a lot of them they will cause a considerable amount of damage. Usually they do not attack wood has has a finish more than a stain. Normally if you've got a polyurethane finisher or foreigner or something like that or paint on it they're not going to attack for wood in most cases. Where you got a hall you can put put Sevendust around the opening in the car. Carry that in and kill off the individual. What will happen. What they do is they make a hole up through there and they make a series of cells in which they fill with pollen and lay eggs on the larvae hatch feed on the pollen come out later in the summer as adult bees which over winter and come back in the spring to do that all over again. What you do not want to do is cock up that hole until late in the summer because people do this with some strange idea of it that will kill them when obviously dug a tunnel through wood to get there. They can tunnel through wood to get out and instead of one hole they have

six or seven holes all in a nice row write down or write down a piece of wood where each individual beat a side to make its own hole to come out so that's counterproductive. But if you can bring yourself to put on some sort of a of a finish that actually forms a film across the surface such as a you know maybe a matte polyethylene that's that's outdoor safe. That may help keep them out. Chances are your redwood may be maybe old enough that it's been weathered enough that it's lost some of its natural oils that would help keep some of these guys out. OK thank you very much. And we go to normal this next co-aligned number four. Hello hello. Thank you for that. In my car I have other by about a half an inch long thin air and right cross cross this morning when I open the coffee pot to put fresh coffee in the old filter with grep Croppy groomed. There was one in there and there

they seem to be all over my house in the sink in the bathroom. Specially when they were damp. Do they do they jump or crawl or just go at all. They're just there about a fourth to a half long and they're very thin and fragile and grave looking OK. What you may have are I'm not sure what you got but it may be that you have drain flies and particularly if you see little for little flies that are or debts that are about it eighth of an inch long and triangular shape look like little black sitting on the walls. This is B the adult stage and they will live in the drains and you may want to. Clean the drains out use a drink cleaner on that or or even use a brush that goes down a drain and knocks off some of debris on the inside of a pipe. This will help get rid of them and they won't be as numerous around the legs and other locations. The other thing of course is as you mentioned they need

moisture and so the more you can do to hang up wash clothes to dry leave Apoc coffeepot open did air dry or dry as best you can before you close it up. These sorts of things will help keep them from being a problem. 30 drinks later you recommand know anything cleans a drain will help get rid of the slime on the inside which is what the insects are feeding on it. Thank you so much good will try get one more at least 3 champagne. Hello oh hello yes and this is the general question. I've I've never had my house checked or termites and possibly when I bought it 24 years ago is if I'm not sure if I recognize a science term but is it good. Thank you to have a chair for us today. I haven't had any problem. Usually it's a good idea to to have your house checked every

three to five years and most pest control companies will do this with the idea that they may find termites and thus get some business from you. If they do find termites get another. I get two more companies in to see if they also find termites and then you'll have some beds that you can choose from. But but it's a good idea as a general rule to have your house checked every every three to five years. We're going have to leave it there and my apologies I think we have one more person we can take but maybe again later in the summer Phil will come back with her again. Phil Nixon He's extension entomologist at the vine from time to time he's here on the program to questions about dealing with home insect pests.