Speaking of stink bugs...

Often it can be difficult to differentiate between beneficial insects and pests in the garden. One common case of mistaken identities is between stink bug pests and their beneficial relatives. While the spined soldier bug, Podisus maculiventris, is related to stink bugs, contrary to popular belief they are actually different critters entirely.  P. maculiventris looks very similar to Euschistus servus, the brown stink bug, but has more acute spines on the edge of the pronotum (think shoulders). There are at least 10 different species of stink bugs that may be found feeding on a variety of plants in a NJ garden but E. servus and Acrosternum hilare, the green stink bug, are the most common. In recent years the invasive species Halyomorpha halys, also known as the brown marmorated stink bug, has become a major agricultural pest and household nuisance and is making its way into many NJ gardens. To add to the confusion, there are some species of stink bugs (such as Perillus bioculatus, the two-spotted stink bug) that are predators of other pest insects. Still confounded by the subject? Take a look at the Rutgers Fact Sheets below for further clarification.

Rutgers Fact Sheet on Beneficial Insects of the Home Garden

Rutgers Fact Sheet on Stink Bugs

Rutgers Fact Sheet on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

Green stink bug

Brown stink bug

Brown marmorated stink bug

Spined soldier bug feeding on beetle larva

Two-spotted stink bug feeding on Colorado potato beetle larva

What's Eating You? 7.20.12

Adult Japanese Beetles (Popillia japonica Newman) seem to be hitting their peak right now.  Adults of these beetles feed on the foliage and flowers of over 300 species of plants.  I could write a lengthy article all about these beetles and how to manage them, but I'd be hard pressed to top Ohio State's Fact Sheet on the subject.  Check out their link below for all you ever wanted to know about Japanese Beetles in the home garden.

Popillia japonica Newman

Ohio State Japanese Beetle Fact Sheet

Burlington County Farm Fair 7/18-7/21

The annual Burlington County Farm Fair kicks off this week at the Burlington County Fair Grounds at the intersection of Hwy 206 and Jacksonville-Jacobstown Rd. in Columbus starting Wednesday, July 18 at 2 p.m.  Be sure to stop by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension booth on the pond to ask discuss your garden questions with our Master Gardener volunteers and to pick up one of our Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) temporary tattoos!  See the links below for more information on the Burlington County Farm Fair, the Rutgers Master Gardeners or the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.

Burlington County Farm Fair

Rutgers Master Gardener Program

Rutgers Fact Sheet on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

BMSB temporary tattoo

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What's Eating You? 7.12.12

Are you noticing that something has been taking a bite out of some of your plants?  Colorado Potato Beetles (CPB) are very active right now.  You may see them in all live stages, eggs, larvae and adults.  CPB's feed on leaves, flowers, terminal growth, stems, and even the fruits of a large variety of vegetable plants.  Their preferred hosts are tomato, potato and eggplant but they will also feed on many other plants and weeds including ground-cherry, jimsonweed, horse nettle, petunia, henbane, thorn apple, thistle, and mullein.  Chances are, if you're a home gardener,  you have few enough plants (and beetles) that you can manage these heavy foliar feeders with a gardeners best tool, your hands.  Inspect your plants (including the undersides of leaves) once weekly and pick off and crush all eggs, larvae and adults you happen to see, or drop them in a bucket of soapy water.  This will greatly reduce their populations as each generation will reach maturity within only 10 days.  Keeping your garden and surrounding area free of weeds will help to reduce populations.  It is also helpful to rotate solenaceous (the family to which tomato, potato and eggplant belong) plants as far as possible from the previous year’s planting to reduce beetle infestations.  Cheesecloth or non-woven nylon crop covers may help protect the foliage of young tomato and eggplant transplants from beetle damage.  For the larger scale growers or extreme infestations, a biological insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis (BT) (commercially available as Novodor), may be used. BT is a biological pesticide which uses a bacterium to kill small potato beetle larvae.  It is harmless to most other insects and mammals.  As a last resort beetles may be treated with chemical pesticides labeled for control of CPB.  If a pesticide is used, target newly hatched eggs and small larvae making sure to thoroughly cover leaves and stems for best results. With any pesticide always read and follow all label directions before application and observe the required number of days wait before harvest for each particular crop. 

CPB eggs

CPB larvae (1st and 2nd instars)

CPB Adult

Wondering what those purple flowers are?

If you look around Burlington County right now, in highway medians, roadside ditches, maybe even in your own yard, you'll notice an abundance of blue to purple flowers on tall, slender, almost woody stalks.  These are chicory (Cichorium intybus) flowers.  Also known as blue sailors, coffeeweed, or succory, chicory, though considered by most to be a wildflower, has been named a noxious weed by the NJ legislature since its introduction to North America from its native home in Europe.  A perennial by virtue of a taproot, certain varieties of chicory are valued by many for an array of uses of its leaves and roots.  Wild chicory may be used for its bitter leaves in certain dishes but there are also several varieties that have been cultivated specifically for their leaves, such as Belgian endive (not to be confused with true endive, Cichorium endivia), radicchio, and sugarloaf.  Perhaps the best known use, especially of Cichorium intybus var. sativum, is of the root as a coffee additive or, particularly in times of economic hardship, as a coffee substitute.  The root is baked and then ground before use.  Other uses for chicory are of the roots as an additive to beer and as a medicinal treatment for intestinal parasites, or the entire plant may be used as forage for farm animals.

USDA PLANTS Profile for Cichorium intybus

Rutgers N.J. Weed Gallery - Cichorium intybus