Keeping Pests Away

[RC Maple]

I planted 20 sugar maples this spring in an area along the edge of our woods. To keep the rabbits and deer off of them I put 4 ft tree tubes around them. All the trees were 3-4 ft when planted. After a couple months some of those trees were growing up and over the tops of the tubes - things were looking good. Evidently, a 4 ft tube is not enough to keep deer from brousing all the leaves off and snapping the terminal leader off the tree. After this happened and I got on the phone with place I got the tubes to see if they had a way already dreamed up to extend the height of the tubes - they did, and we went up another 1.5 - 2 ft. While I was back there checking out how they were getting along I saw one tree that was completely hammered by Jap beetles - all the leaves were just skeletons. So I picked up some Sevin and sprayed that tree and sprayed all the others last night. I took the tubes off and most all of the other trees looked good but one other had some feeding started but it wasn't too bad yet and hopefully I my treatment will take care of it. I now have a couple of the trees that are popping out of the tops of the tubes so we will see if they will be able to stay pest-free up there. This is harder than I thought it would be.

[SeanD]

I've had more pest damage this year than I have in a while. Early in the summer, deer came through for a period of time and ate everything that was about 5' high and below. Normally we don't have too much of a problem with them, but this year they are around a lot. I've found the only thing that works for them is fencing. Put it close enough that they can't just jump over it into the area you are protecting. I've found that if I discourage them enough they move on to easier stuff to eat in the yard.

Up higher in the canopy, something is eating the maple leaves. I think it's a caterpillar of some type because in the spring there were black droppings all over the place. It seems to have eased up a bit now, but the damage is still visible. The leaves aren't all gone but almost all of them have holes to some extent.

For Japanese beetles, I've had good luck with a two-step approach. The hanging traps are very effective for catching the adults and Grub Ex or something like it will kill the larvae in the soil. For a couple of seasons I'd be changing out full bags of beetles every week. Now, they are down to pretty acceptable levels.

Good luck,
Sean

[RC Maple]

I may see if I can pick up some beetle traps and try hanging those too. The sevin I sprayed on the trees doesn't seem to be doing much - maybe it takes time? There's a number on the bottle and I am going to talk to someone and find out. I want to see them drop dead like when you spray wasp and hornet killer on wasps but maybe thy have to ingest so much?

[JTripp]

Give it a day or two, the beetles do have to ingest the poison.

[RC Maple]

Thanks JT. I did call the tech line for Sevin and the answer was the same. I was also advised not to hang the traps unless I wanted to attract more beetles to the area. There was still plenty of beetles around one of the trees yesterday but one of them did seem to have less.

[happy thoughts]

They say the best place to hang beetle traps is at your next door neighbor's house :). You should consider treating the soil to kill grubs and decrease next year's beetle population. There are biologic controls for that which I think are based on BT. You might also consider a pyrethrin based pesticide for adult beetle control which is much less toxic than sevin and just as effective.
Good luck. There's still time for your trees to releaf this year. The beetles you should be close to done for the year.

[spud]

If you want deer to stay away from small trees or in my case apple trees just spray the tree with PlantSkidd. I have seen deer in my apple orchard countless times and never once have they touched a tree. Sevin will control JB but you may have to spray 2-3 times before they are gone.

Spud

[RC Maple]

Fortunately, only one tree was really hammered by the beetles when I first found them. I did make the crack about hanging the traps in my neighbors yard to the gal who answered the tech line - she didn't find as much humor in it though. Happy Thoughts do you have a favorite insecticide? The Sevin I picked up was just the first jug I picked up with jap beetles labeled. Spud - I will check out the PlantSkidd, I don't know that I've seen it in a store but I'll look it up online. Thanks guys for the ideas.

[happy thoughts]

Happy Thoughts do you have a favorite insecticide? .

Since most pestcides are toxic to bees and other beneficial insects, I rarely use pesticides especially for use on food plants and almost never use them on ornamentals. I do use BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) for mosquito control in our rain barrels and for control of cabbage moths. That's a naturally occuring bacteria that infects larvae and kills them before they reach an adult stage. It is effective as a soil treatment for japanese beetle grubs as is the bacteria that causes milky spore disease. You should be able to find either at any garden department. The soil treatment should last at least a couple of years and will become more effective over time as the bacteria population grows in the soil.