- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
Save May 19th 2011 for the Annual IPM for Professional Landscapers Meeting.
This year we will be trying a new venue - The Chula Vista Nature Center. While Chula Vista may sound far, it's really only 15 min. south of the the where we held the meeting the last 3 years.
We are planning on starting a 8am and going to 3pm. Admission to the Center is included so after the meeting at 3pm you can go watch them feed the sharks and rays and at 3:30 they feed the birds.
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
In the interest of disclosure, I am a vegetarian. It's not a fad, I haven't intentionally eaten meat, chicken, fish or seafood for nearly 40 years. And when I found out that that red grapefruit juice is often colored with dye from squashed cochineal beetles I stopped drinking that too.
But what other foods use it? Until now, dye from the cochineal beetle (actually it's a scale insect) only needed to be listed as something like “coloring added.” Starting today (1/5/11), foods and cosmetics must list the ingredient as cochineal extract or carmine.
The need for disclosure came about not so much as as a deep seated desire to notify vegetarians (or people who have religion-based dietary restrictions) but rather allergic responses to the dye. The FDA reports that there are about 31 "adverse effects" each year that are known to be attributable to cochineal extract.
What is this cochineal insect? If you have seen prickly pear (Opuntia) cactus, you have probably seen this insect. They are often covered in a white fluffy mass so it could be mistaken for mealybugs.
Rubbing the mass will result in a red-dyed finger. It generally will not cause the cactus to die (no pun intended!) but will be cosmetically unsightly in a landscape. My recommendation is that unless it is a MAJOR problem on your cactus, it should not be chemically treated or otherwise controlled. You will be facing a losing battle. You can spray them off with a strong stream of water. If it is really covering the pads, you can use insecticidal soap.
FYI: in some places certain cochineal species are used as a biocontrol agent for invasive Opuntia.
As a point of interest, there is a similar insect, cactus scale, that can be found on prickly pear.
Note that this kind of scale does not produce the red dye or fluffy wax coating.
Bon appetit!
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
First of all, I cannot tell you how important it is for you NOT to put out traps. There is a lot of information online about these traps but when people start putting them out, it completely messes up the detection program that the state is conducting.
Having said that, if you see any of the following things on or near a Canary Island Date Palm please contact the following:
CDFA Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899 or go to the
CDFA's Report A Pest website at: www.cdfa.ca.gov/go/reportapest
Also , the adult is a rather clumsy, slow moving flier. If you think you see something like a large bumblebee around a Canary Island palm, it may actually be a RPW. If would probably be helpful to report that also.
Hold your cursor over the photo for a description (if the photo is not self-evident).
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
I just got an email from Michael J. who suggested that the weed I could not ID (see July 15 2009 post) is an Echium. I looked it up and it looks like Echium vulgare L. (common viper's bugloss). I just moved it to a greenhouse last week so I'll take another look at it tomorrow.
According to the USDA Plants Profile site (http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ECVU), there are no specimens reported in California. I'll take it to ag commissioners office so they can send it to CDFA for an "official" ID.
Thanks Michael! I'll post the outcome when I find out for sure.
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
As a followup to my last posting here, I started one liverwort trial looking at postemergence materials. So far some of them look pretty darn good although I don't have any crops in the test it may turn out that they also kill them as well as the liverwort.
I also started a preemergence study today (from a a grant from the California Association of Nurseries andGarden Centers). One of the treatments is mustard seed meal (MSM). Since I am doing this collaboratively with a couple of advisors in the north and they already started, I used the same rates they used. I think that if the MSM doesn't have any herbicidal properties, it should at least control the liverwort just by sheer mass.
Here's a photo with the MSM on left and the untreated pots on right: