After a very long 7-year hiatus, University of California Cooperative Extension for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties offered training to certify new UCCE Master Gardeners. Congratulations to those 3 Del Norte and 22 Humboldt individuals who hung in through the extensive training consisting of 19 (76 hours) weekly online Zoom classes, in-person outside field trips and hours of homework, quizzes, help desk queries, hands-on projects, and a final exam. The training consists of a variety of gardening topics from climate zones, soil health, entomology, plant diseases, propagation, etc. It takes a motivated and dedicated individual to become a UCCE Master Gardener, and we are so very proud of each graduate.

The one thing all UC Master Gardeners have in common is our love of gardening and a passion to share it with others. There are many people in our community who have no idea of who we are, and what we do. I would like to provide some insight into our program.

The Master Gardener Program is part of the University of California, Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources and administered under the local county's Cooperative Extension office. Other Cooperative Extension programs in our counties include, 4-H, the Master Food Preservers, adult and youth nutrition programs, as well as the various staff advisers (farm, livestock, forestry, nutrition, etc.).

Once the training is completed and passing of the final exam, our volunteers give back a minimum of 50 hours of volunteer services their first year. Every year thereafter, to remain certified, they volunteer a minimum of 25 hours and attend 12 hours of continuing education.

Our trained volunteers offer free science-based gardening information to home gardeners, community gardens, and school gardens throughout Del Norte and Humboldt Counties. Our primary goal is to educate and mentor our community about topics related to home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices.

Are you growing food this year and have questions? Do you have bugs in your garden and need help? Do you want to know how to care for a particular landscape plant? Do you want more pollinators visiting your garden? Do you want advice on California native plants for our area? Do you want to learn about composting and worm composting? Do you want to conserve water in your landscape? You can submit your questions to our team of garden detectives through our Help Desk service at https://ucanr.edu/mghelpdesk

Perhaps you would like a speaker for your group to speak on a gardening topic? Do you want a reliable resource for gardening information? Then visit our website at: https://ucanr.edu/sites/hdnmastergardenrs or https://ucanr.edu/helpmg. You will find various topics as well as previous recordings of past presentations. Make sure to sign up for our quarterly newsletter.

UC Master Gardeners can be found at various events in Del Norte and Humboldt from the county fairs to farmers' markets. We give presentations to clubs and service organizations. We share information via social and printed media.

We are all about teaching, learning, and having fun! As the program coordinator, the one thing I enjoy the most is the sense of family and the friendships that are made within our program.

If you have any gardening questions, please visit our website, and submit a Help Desk Ticket. If you have an idea for possible collaboration, feel free to contact us.

 

Photo - UCCE MG Myron Kelso Used with permission.

Visit our Website: https://ucanr.edu/sites/hdnmastergardeners/

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HumboldtMG/

Check out our Blog https://ucanr.edu/blogs/CoastalGardener

CHARD CRUST QUICHE

UC Master Gardeners are notorious for an over-abundance of produce from their garden. UC Master Gardener Jennifer created a non flour quiche crust using chard.  

 

"I used to make this all the time! What happened?  So it is a quiche with a chard crust. A great opportunity to use lots of garden veggies and clean out items in your fridge. You can either steam the big leaves or scatter them in a pie pan and microwave. Several layers are needed to prevent leakage. Layer in ingredients, all the yummy things your family enjoys. Add beaten eggs before putting cheese on top (I forgot about that-it's tough to get the eggs to penetrate the cheese layer).  Bake this at 350 for about 1/2 hour then broiled for a few minutes. Needs to cool before I dig in!"

Photos - Jennifer Bell Used with permission.

E is for Earwigs - The Cringe-worthy Earwig

For most people, there is something cringe-worthy about the ubiquitous earwig. The name comes from Old English, ?ar-wicga derived from ?ar (ear) and wicga (beetle, worm, insect) and originated from the widespread false belief that the earwig crept into peoples' ears at night and burrowed into their brains. Earwig also means “a person who worms himself or herself into another's favour by whispering and insinuation; a person who seeks to influence others in secret,” “to importune or pester, esp. in private, to influence or bias (a person) secretly; to insinuate oneself into the confidence of (a person),” “to listen covertly to another person's conversation, to eavesdrop” or “to fill the head of (a person) with wild or eccentric notions.”¹  Rather a lot of symbolism for a small brown insect—think Finnegans Wake or Wrath of Khan.

Despite the cringe-factor, earwigs occupy an equivocal place in our pest bestiary. While they can and do ravage vegetable seedlings, mow through annuals, infest budding flowers, and inflict significant damage on soft fruits and corn, earwigs also play a beneficial role by feasting on decomposing vegetation and pests like mites, aphids and other soft-bodied insects.^2,3

The species of earwig found in our gardens is likely the European earwig, Forficula auricularia, which was introduced accidently around 1900. These earwigs commonly damage seedling, soft fruit, and sweet corn. Diagnosing European earwig damage is a process of exclusion. Seedlings may be missing all or parts of theirs leaves or even chewed down to the soil line, stem, and all. Leaves on older plants are often riddled with irregular holes and gnawed at the margins and edges. European earwig damage may look like the work of caterpillars, but earwigs do not leave frass (excrement) webbing or pupae, unlike caterpillars. It resembles the work of slugs, but there is no telltale slime trail. To confirm your diagnosis, go into the garden at night with a flashlight or headlamp and you can see your pest in action.

European earwigs (nymphs and adults) may gouge holes or tunnels into soft fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apricots, and peaches. These holes can be shallow or extend deep into the fruit. In developing corn, earwigs eat the silks (pollen tubules), which prevents pollination. They also munch on flower buds and flowers. They are versatile and flexible in their diets, and I've found them in everything from artichokes to zinnias.^2,4  Sometimes they are chewing away on the plants, other times they appear to be sheltering and probably other times they are busy eating aphids and other pests. Although I have never witnessed the pest control firsthand, Robert Orpet, PhD has shown that aphids were consumed in apple orchards even when the aphids were rare suggesting that European earwigs may provide biological control. He found no evidence of earwig damage to the fruit.⁵

If your garden is populated largely by lawn, trees, woody ornamental plants or an apple orchard, earwigs are unlikely to give you trouble and may provide benefits.⁶ 

If you are growing vegetables, herbaceous flowering plants, sweet corn, or plants with soft fruits such as strawberries and apricots and suspect that earwigs are causing damage, here are some things you can do.

Reduce outdoor hiding places by eliminating dense undergrowth around your plants, remove debris, from planting areas, store flowerpots, garden decorations and other structures that can provide refuge for earwigs, check your mulches to see if earwigs are hidden in them and remove them if necessary.

Trap earwigs using rolled newspapers, short lengths of bamboo or hose on the soil near plants at dusk. In the morning, pick up these items and tip the earwigs into a container of soapy water. People have also recommended using an empty low-sided tuna or cat food can with oil to trap earwigs—I have tried this but have only attracted cats, possums, and racoons so far. Other gardeners I have spoken to up here on the North Coast, like veteran Master Gardener Grant Eberly, have not found this effective either. You might have better luck. Earwigs are most active at night, and usually congregate in cool, dark moist places during the day. You can earwigs to your nightly pest patrol and let them join the slugs you pick off your plants in a pot of soapy water. You can also reduce the surface moisture in your garden by using drip irrigation. All these steps will help reduce earwig populations to more manageable levels.

Before we leave earwigs, I want to argue that they are more interesting than awful. First, unusual among insects it is easy to distinguish males and female—males have curved forceps-like appendages (technically known as cerci) and females are straighter. They use these appendages primarily in their rather involved courtship (!) and in defense.

Second, female earwigs are rather dedicated mothers. They lay 50-90 eggs in a chamber in the ground each fall. Earwigs may dig as deep as six feet underground in cold parts of the country to escape winter temperatures. While in the nest, females guard and tend their eggs and young. Maternal care is important for earwig offspring. Microbes in nest threaten the eggs and young (nymphs). Maternal care in the European earwig includes defense against fungal exposure, by grooming the eggs and by transferring chemicals that reduce fungal infection. ⁷ Females also care for the nymphs, with post-hatching maternal care lasting through the first two instars or molts. Mothers groom their offspring and provide food for nymphs by regurgitation, much like birds. Interestingly, when nymphs are deprived of maternal care, the orphaned females abandon their offspring for longer periods and feed them less.⁸ While I doubt earwigs will end up on Mother's Day cards any time soon, maternal care appears to be the norm among all earwig species studied—a behavior that is very unusual in an insect that is not social like bees and ants. Next time you see an earwig, consider—she might be someone's devoted mother.

SOURCES

1. Oxford dictionary of English. (Oxford University Press, 2010).
2. Flint, M. L. & Fayard, M. L. Earwigs Management Guidelines--UC IPM. (University of California Cooperative Extension, 2012).
3. Flint, M. L. Pests of the garden and small farm: a grower's guide to using less pesticide. (University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2018).
4. Coates, W. W. et al. European Earwig: Apricot Agriculture: Pest Management Guidelines UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM). UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Apricot https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/apricot/European-earwig/ (2014).
5. Orpet, R. J., Goldberger, J. R., Crowder, D. W. & Jones, V. P. Field evidence and grower perceptions on the roles of an omnivore, European earwig, in apple orchards. Biol. Control 132, 189–198 (2019).
6. Earwigs--Quick Tips. Quick Tips http://ipm.ucanr.edu/QT/earwigscard.html (2019).
7. Boos, S., Meunier, J., Pichon, S. & Kölliker, M. Maternal care provides antifungal protection to eggs in the European earwig. Behav. Ecol. 25, 754–761 (2014).
8. Thesing, J., Kramer, J., Koch, L. K. & Meunier, J. Short-term benefits, but transgenerational costs of maternal loss in an insect with facultative maternal care. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 282, 20151617 (2015).

 

Image Male earwig in flower—photograph by Keyt Fischer, permission to use granted

Image Earwig maternal care photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nesting_Earwig_Chester_UK_2.jpg Citation: A nesting earwig. © Nabokov / Wikimedia Commons

 

Friend or Foe? Insect? Bug? Beneficial? Pest? Insect Relative? Pollinator? Other?

All these terms, and the creatures/animals they represent, can fall into, “What's Bugging Me”. I'd like to introduce you to some common thoughts and definitions about these creatures as well as a little scientific information. Some people use the terms insect, bug, or pest to mean pretty much the same thing, an organism that gets into and/or onto things they shouldn't and cause damage.

What is a pest? A pest can generally be defined as any animal, plant, or other organism whose biology, behavior, or location places it in direct conflict with humans. Because some insects threaten human health, destroy food, damage structures or landscapes, or cause general annoyance or anxiety, they are considered pests. Insect pests can cause serious crop damage; they also carry viral, bacterial, and fungal diseases which they can transmit to crop plants, livestock, and humans.

According to the California Master Gardener Handbook, 2^nd Edition, page 176, insects are the most abundant animals on the earth - there are well over one million species of insect. The vast majority are considered neutral or have a beneficial effect.

Entomology is the study of insects. You can find insects just about anywhere on this planet except perhaps in the open ocean. Insects live in or on animals; plants; soil; wood structures; buildings; carpet, furniture, and fabric; water bodies like streams, lakes, ocean shores; and stored food products.

Thinking back to your early school days you might remember learning about taxonomy, a way of categorizing or naming living organisms in an ordered system intended to indicate natural relationships. We learned (well, maybe some of us learned, I always had to look it up) the terms Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Each level is more specific or defining.

Let's look at the classification of insects:

            Kingdom: Animalia

                        Phylum: Arthropoda

                                    Class: Insecta

                                                Order: there are over 30 different Orders

                                                            Family: each order can have 90 or more Families

                                                                        Genus: each family has many Genera

                                                                                    Species: each Genera has several Species

 

As you can see from the taxonomic classification above, insects belong to a group of animals called Arthropods, this includes beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, ants, and flies to name a few. Arthropods are cold blooded, have an exterior skeleton (exoskeleton) and their adult form must have the following features:

• Three distinct body areas – head, thorax, and abdomen. The legs and wings attach to the thorax.
• Jointed legs, three pairs. The six legs attach to the thorax and can be used for jumping, grasping, or walking
• Antennae, one pair, attached to the head. Antennae are sensory organs. They can be short, long, smooth, serrated, or feathery.
• Wings (none, one, or two pairs). Wings can be colored or clear, ornamental and the vein pattern play an important role in identifying the species.

Some of the more common and frequently encountered Arthropods are:

Order	Common Name	Distinguishing Characteristics
Coleoptera “hard or sheath wing”	Beetles	Pair of hardened wings meet in the middle in a straight line down back
Lepidoptera “scaly wing”	Butterflies and moths	Two pair of wings covered in small powdery scales. Curly mouthparts called a proboscis
Hymenoptera “membrane wings”	Bees, wasps, ants	Two pairs of wings, the forewings are generally larger than the hind wings. Generally, have a constricted waist
Diptera “two wings”	Flies, gnats, midges, mosquitos	One pair of wings; second pair is reduced in size and often not seen
Hemiptera “half wings” or “different wings”	True bugs*, leaf or treehoppers, aphids, scale	Two pairs of wings, a thick outer part and a membranous wing that folds up and look like a triangle
Orthoptera “straight wings”	Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids	Four wings, front ones thickened: jumping hind legs. Stout mouthparts.

* Definition of bug: any in the order(Hemiptera and especially its suborder Heteroptera) of insects (such as an assassin bug or chinch bug) that have sucking mouthparts, forewings thickened at the base, and incomplete metamorphosis and are often economic/agricultural pests.

Several other creatures in the Arthropod phylum are often called insects or bugs but their characteristics and taxonomy are different so they aren't really insects, and some can be considered pests. Think of them as insect relatives. Common insect relatives in the garden and home include spiders (Class = arachnoid), scorpions (Class = Scorpiones), fleas (Class = Siphonaptera), centipedes (Class = Chilopoda), and pillbug (Class = Isopoda).

Some of the creatures we call bugs/insects/pests are not arthropods at all but are in a different taxonomic phylum and class. Snails and slugs fall into this category. They are in the Phylum = Mollusca and Class = Gastopoda, and they are the bane of many a gardener.

For the most part, insects are identified by genus and species and of course their common name which can be one thing on the west coast, another in the mid-west, another on the east coast and another in other parts of the world. Common names can get us in trouble, take for example the common name, pillbug, roly-poly bug, doodle bug, sow bug (not in the same family), wood louse, potato bug, slater and armadillo bug have all been used to identify the same creature. Using the scientific name, Armadillidium vulgare, helps us talk to each other about the same organism which is why taxonomy is important.

You can see that all this bug, insect, and pest stuff can be quite complicated and interesting. Future What's Bugging Me columns will focus on land dwelling arthropods and perhaps a few other phylum/classes of creatures that we find in our garden, landscapes and home be they bug, insect, or pest, friend or foe. We'll look at what they are, what they do, what they look like, ways to control them, ways to encourage them and more. Here's one to get us started:

Let's spend a bit more time with Armadillidium vulgare, commonly referred to as pillbugs and many other names as noted above.

• They are not insects or true bugs
• They are soil dwelling crustaceans in the class Crustacea, order Isopoda, family Armadillididae
• Description:

o   Small heads with antennae, six small abdominal parts, seven large thoracic segments each with a pair of legs attached.

o   Hard, shell like covering made up of segmented plates which allows them to roll up into balls when disturbed. They have an “armored” appearance.

o   Coloring & Size:

• Immatures are pale yellow to whitish and about 1/12^th of an inch long (1 – 2 mm.)
• Older pillbugs are brown to dark gray and about 1/3 to ¾ inch long (8mm - 1 cm long). If they have recently molted, they can appear blue.

• Life cycle:

o   Adults can live 2 – 5 years

o   Pillbugs are prolific, giving birth to 30 – 80 young per brood. Producing 2 to 3 generations a year.

o   Eggs are kept in a brood sac on the underside of the females

o   Eggs hatch about one month after being produced and stay in the brood sac until they emerge about 2 weeks later.

o   For the next 4 to 5 months, the young will molt every 1 – 2 weeks as they grow into adults.

• They live under organic litter and other debris on the ground beneath low-growing plant parts. They prefer moist areas over dry ones.
• They can be considered beneficial because they feed primarily on decaying plant material and are important decomposers of organic matter.
• They can also be considered pests as they also like to chew on fruit, succulent plant parts, seedlings and vegetables that touch damp soil. And sometimes they come into the house.

If you have placed them in the pest category here are some solutions: 

• Clean-up debris around your plants. Eliminate unnecessary piles of leaves, grass clippings and mulch.
• Flowerpots, planters, dog houses, firewood, bricks or other objects that sit directly on the ground should be elevated to allow airflow and drying underneath. This decreases their hiding and breeding spots.
• Minimize wetness on the soil surface, water in the early morning.
• If they are coming indoors, seal or screen gaps around openings in buildings.
• They are harmless and can be removed by hand or vacuumed. Due to decreased moisture indoors, they rarely survive more than a day or two.

See you next time on What's Bugging Me?

 

Resources:

California Master Gardener Handbook, Second Edition

How to Manage Pests, Pests in Gardens and Landscapes, Pillbugs and sowbugs http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/sowbugs.html

Michael Merchant, Ph.D. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Insects in the City, Pillbugs https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/landscape/veggie/ent-1006/

Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, High Plains Integrated Pest Management, Pillbug, https://wiki.bugwood.org/HPIPM:Pillbug

University of Florida, IFAS, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences  https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/entnemdept/2014/05/06/difference-between-insect-and-a-bug/

Webster Dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bug

Image: Insect illustrations | ala.org | CC BY SA 3.0 https://www.mylearning.org/resources/hand-drawn-illustrations-of-insects

Image: Adult Pillbugs  http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/sowbugs.html

Image: Defensive Pillbug https://wiki.bugwood.org/File:PillbugF4.jpg