It is now time to start treating for PEACH TREE BORERS. Please don’t stop reading just because you don’t have peach trees; these pests attack any fruit tree that gets a stone or a pit… so basically any fruit tree except apples and pears. They also attack nut trees, and even flowering almond shrubs.

Bonide's "Captain Jack's DEADBUG", active ingredient spinosad, is a very effective product to treat for these destructive critters. They aren't vulnerable while they are inside the tree, so you have to get them coming and going. Treat every other week in August, September, and October. Spray from the scaffold branches to the base of the tree, allowing the product to soak into the ground right around the trunk.

Two other emerging enemies this time of year are budworms and hornworms. If you have petunias or geraniums, you most likely now have budworms. If your flowering has stopped or you see little holes in your buds - check for budworms. Hornworms are much easier to spot... big, green, and gruesome! Both can be controlled by Bt (Bacillis Thuringiensis). After the caterpillars eat the bacteria, their guts rupture and they die. Bt is therefore one of the safest natural pesticides you can use in terms of controlling caterpillar pests of vegetables or fruits without harming beneficial insects.

Squash bugs are now busy devouring the leaves of squash, pumpkins, and other members of the curcubit family. They have hard shells and are one of the hardest insects to kill, so we have a one-two punch.

Diatomaceous earth is made from the fossilized remains of tiny, aquatic organisms called diatoms. When bugs come in contact with this substance, it cuts lesions in their exosceletons.

Our recommendation is to begin with a dusting of diatomaceous earth, followed the next day by a dusting of Eight, active ingredient permethrin, a nerve poison, made much more effective with these hard shelled bugs by the previous treatment that weakened their defenses.