RE: Chemicals and worms
- To:
- Subject: RE: Chemicals and worms
- From: D* N*
- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 10:35:14 -0400
- Importance: Normal
Hi Betsy,
It was nice meeting you at the convention. I found it interesting that you
mentioned blister beetles. Last summer Alex told me he had some kind of bug
that was devastating his hostas. Over the phone he could not give me enough
information for me to make a positive ID. When I got to his place he had
about a dozen hostas that had been eaten almost to the ground. The blister
beetles had spread to 200 square feet of hosta bed. Only the leaf and flower
petioles were left standing.
I had been spraying for bagworms commercially and had 50 gallons of
Scimitar(Zeneca)in my tank at the time. Two gallons and ten minutes later
the blister beetles were history. Scimitar has very fast knockdown and no
residual activity. Alex was amazed at the ten minute kill time.
I can't imagine what his hosta garden would look like if the blister beetles
had been left unchecked. It is my experience that blister beetles have few
if any natural predators. (unless you count me)
Dan Nelson
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hosta-open@mallorn.com
[o*@mallorn.com]On Behalf Of Betsy Mahtani
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 10:02 AM
To: hosta-open@mallorn.com
Subject: Re: Chemicals and worms
Bob - I agree with everyone who responded that toads DO help. I keep
water in my old, leaky water garden just for frogs and toads and have so
many tadpoles and frogs and toads that their calls are almost deafening
at night--but welcome. Box turtles also eat slugs, snails, and roly
polys. Snakes may eat them, too (we have garter, gopher, rat, and hog
nosed snakes), but they eat small rodents as well (unfortunately they
also eat frogs). I was encouraged to see several toads and turtles near
the infested hostas last year when the nasty blister beetles invaded in
August--but aghast yesterday when I spotted a blister beetle--much too
soon!!
Have bought some of the insecticides and baits, but usually leave them
unopened when I read all the warnings again.
Convention was wonderful, meeting people from this forum was great, and
it was exciting that you received a presidential award for all your fine
work!
Betsy
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