The munching insects appear out in force this spring
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Earwigs won't kill mature plants, but they'll destroy
seedlings and damage soft fruit and berries. (Photo
courtesy UC Integrated Pest Management)
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One insect apparently liked our roller-coaster spring: Earwigs.
“We’ve gotten a lot of questions about earwigs,” says Kevin Marini, community education specialist for the UCCE Master Gardeners of Placer County. “There’s always a pest every year that rears its head and becomes ‘The Pest of the Year.’ We’re still waiting, but by all appearances, maybe it’s earwigs.”
Earwigs eat holes – especially inside rose flowers or through heads of lettuce. They usually won’t kill a mature plant, but they can be death to seedlings.
“Earwigs are very, very challenging for emerging plants,” Marini says. “Direct seedlings or little transplants; they just get munched.”
With their pinchers, earwigs are very distinctive among common garden insects. Their little forceps-like hooks are used for defense (although they rarely bite people).
About an inch long when mature, earwigs can do serious damage to soft fruit and berries (such as apricots, strawberries, raspberries or blackberries) and corn.
But they also are a major predator of aphids; that makes earwigs a garden good guy, too.
Anecdotally, the earwigs may be tied to late spring showers.
“We got sporadic rain; not much, but just enough,” Marini observes. “Late rain can cause outbreaks of earwigs.”
The moisture cups inside roses, lettuce heads and other places that earwigs like to hide – and eat.
On the other hand, early spikes in heat may have held down aphid invasions, Marini observes. “We’ve had hardly any calls on aphids – but that can change in a week.”
Maybe all those earwigs were hungry?
For more about earwigs: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74102.html
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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 9
Be careful walking or working in wet soil; it compacts easily.
* Keep the irrigation turned off; the ground is plenty wet with more rain on the way.
* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.
* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.
* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).
* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.
* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.
* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.
* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.
* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.
* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.