Winter Moths and Icky Green Worms

– By Tracey Robertson, Media Relations

Just yesterday, my seven-year-old commented on, “how many moths we have flying around outside our house.” He was more excited than I had been when I noticed them a couple days earlier—more than six or seven little, brown moths flitting about outside our kitchen window. While I thought it odd that so many moths had suddenly descended upon our soggy backyard I opted, as has been my approach in the past, (see my dead birch tree entry: The Cobbler’s Children) to ignore them.

Fortunately for me (and my neglected foliage), my co-workers are more interested and knowledgeable than I. When I casually mentioned the moth invasion to one of my peers, she responded with every confidence, “Winter moths …they climb up your trees, lay eggs and die. In the spring, the eggs hatch and green caterpillars eat the leaves from your trees and garden.” What? These harmless-looking brown moths are the beginning of those nasty green caterpillars that dropped on everything—people, pets, plants—in the early months of spring…Egads!

As it turns out, though, there is something I can do now to improve our lot in the spring. Tree Tanglefoot is a super-sticky, non-toxic barrier that, when applied to a tree trunk, prevents ants, worms, moths, and other crawling insects from getting to the leaves. A pretty simple solution to several weeks spent picking icky green worms out of our hair. Who knew?

October Photo Contest Winner

Doreen Howard is the winner of the October Fall Garden Photo Contest! Doreen has won a Contech product of her choosing! Thank you to everyone who entered the Fall Garden photo contest.

“Apples are a huge part of gardening here in Zone 4b, along the Illinois-Wisconsin border.”

Highway to Hell

Garden tours and free plant samples…What could be more enchanting? Karen and Tracey discover that the road to Raleigh, and the annual Garden Writers’ Symposium, could be a rough one.

View the The Grumpy Gardener Blog post.

October Photo Contest

Win a Prize for Your Fall Garden Photo!

Do you have an inspiring photo of your fall garden? Send it to us! If we choose your photo as our October winner, you can have your pick of any Contech product!

Contest ends October 31, 2009. Photos will be chosen based on suitability and quality. Contech retains the right to use photos for future advertising or promotions.

September Photo Contest Winner

Dan Baker is the winner of the September ScareCrow Photo Contest! Dan uses the ScareCrow to “keep the chickens out of the garden and off the patio”. Dan has won a Contech product of his choosing! Thank you to everyone who entered the ScareCrow photo contest.

September Photo Contest

Win a Prize for Your ScareCrow Photo!

Do you have a great photo of the ScareCrow protecting your garden? Send it to us! If yours is the winner you can have your pick of any Contech product!

Contest ends September 31, 2009. Photos will be chosen based on suitability, quality, and promotion of the product. Contech retains the right to use photos for future advertising or promotions.

Wasp Bag Trap Featured on CTV and A Channel News!

Contech’s new product launched last week was featured on two news broadcasts, CTV’s “Where We Live”, and ‘A’ News. The features take a look at our field study with the wasp traps at Vancouver’s PNE. Click an image to view:

CTV	‘A’ News

Stored Food Pests

There are many insect pests that infest food and although control can be difficult, prevention is relatively simple.

Stored food pests can be organized into groupings: beetles, weevils and moths. One of the most common is the saw-toothed grain beetle–a brown beetle about 3 mm (1/8 inch) long. Other problem food pests include: drug-store beetles, granary weevils and several types of small moths, including the world’s most common stored food pest: the Indian meal moth.

Eggs are laid by food pests on or near a food source. The eggs hatch into worm-like larvae. The larvae can chew through plastic and paper packaging to get to food. When they are full grown the larvae “pupate” (form cocoons) in cracks or crevices in the cupboards or in the food itself. The pupae gradually become adults and the adults re-infest the food or travel to new, food to lay eggs.

People usually discover they have an infestation when beetles or moths are found in cereal, spices or other food. Sometimes the beetles may be seen crawling on the kitchen counter, or moths are noticed fluttering in the kitchen.

A wide variety of food can be attacked by stored food pests. This food includes: cereal, crackers, dried fruit, nuts, flour, cake mixes, dry pet food and spices.

Prevention

• Keep food in tightly sealed containers
• Clean up spilled food promptly
• Buy only small quantities if food is not used often
• Check food packages carefully to be sure you do not bring insects home from stores

Control

• Infested food must be discarded (or treated by heat or cold) to kill the adults, larvae and eggs
• Thoroughly clean all infested areas with soap and water
• Use sticky traps (http://www.contech-inc.com/products/pantrymothtrap/) to capture beetles or moths. Some traps use a lure to attract the insect
• For persistent problems, contact a pest control specialist

- Alan Vaudry, B.Sc., M.P.M.

New Product: Wasp Bag Trap

Just in time for Wasp season, we have launched our new Wasp Bag Trap! Try one at your next BBQ. The new design improves the catch rate, and uses 50% less packaging. And as with all of our traps, the Wasp Bag Trap is 100% pesticide-free.

I Didn’t Think the Deer Would Come…

I’ve been smug. The deer have decimated gardens less than a block from me. I thought if there was any consolation to being near a busy street, it would be that the deer would stay away. Apparently I tempted fate….last week they arrived.

Normally I have a ScareCrow set up for the raccoons, but a well-meaning friend’s offer to cut the lawn resulted in a shredded garden hose earlier in the week, so the ScareCrow was out of commission. The deer nibbled the tops of the ever-bearing strawberries, took the blossoms off the alstroemeria and aggressively pruned the tomatoes.

I didn’t expect to sacrifice the tomatoes; as part of the nightshade family with furry leaves, I would have thought they would be unpalatable to the deer.

It could have been much worse – the hostas, dahlias and lilies are all untouched and now blooming. The ScareCrow is back up and the deer hopefully won’t be back. I think that some netting over the neighbour’s fence and a front gate might be in order for next year – the deer have a voracious appetite around here, and apparently not even a steady stream of traffic will keep them from a delicious looking salad bar.

- Karen Schindelhauer