UMass Extension Landscape Message #25
November 2, 2005

Quick Info Menu ------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL DATA REGIONAL NOTES - Cape Cod - Southeast - East - Central - Pioneer Valley - Berkshire PHENOLOGY WOODY ORNAMENTALS - Insects - Diseases - Lab Report - Weeds TURFGRASS - Insects - Diseases - Weeds INFO RESOURCES DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES Use this menu to instantly jump to any portion of the message!

The LANDSCAPE MESSAGE is an educational newsletter intended to guide landscape, nursery and urban forestry professionals in identifying pests in the landscape, monitoring their development, planning management strategies and creating site-specific records for future management reference. UMass Extension updates each issue to provide timely pest management information and the latest regional news and environmental data throughout Massachusetts. From October 2005 through February 2006, the LANDSCAPE MESSAGE will be updated on a monthly basis. The next update will be issued early December 2005. Missed a previous message? Visit the Landscape Message Archive. Interested in additional turf-oriented content? UMass Extension Turf Program Management Updates

ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

During the four-week period from October 1 through October 31, the following growing-degree-day (GDD) and precipitation data accumulated. The contributors observed the soil temperature and phenological indicators on or about October 31. Accumulated GDDs represent the heating units above the 50° F baseline temperature collected via our instruments since the beginning of the current growing season. This information is intended for use as a guide for monitoring the developmental stages of pests in your location and planning management strategies accordingly.

REGIONAL NOTES

Cape Cod Region (Barnstable) - General Conditions: October was the wettest month in recent memory. Many areas of the Cape received somewhere between 12" and 16" of precipitation. A surprise snowfall of 1" occurred Saturday, October 29. While the first frost usually occurs mid-month on the Cape, we have yet to have a frost and tender plants have not died, although snow cover did some injury. I hope that November will allow plenty of dry days to finish the fall cleanup. Montauk daisies are in bloom, along with late chrysanthemums and asters. Franklinia is also still in bloom. Pests/Problems . Fall invaders comprise the bulk of insect problems. Many calls have come in with concerns about symptoms of water stress, reflecting the extremely dry summer weather that occurred.

Southeast Region (Hanson) - General Conditions: October was very wet with Halifax and Hanson receiving about 15 inches of rain thanks to the remnants of hurricanes. Beautiful fall weather has finally arrived just in the past week. Many areas of Plymouth County have received only a light frost although low areas around cranberry bogs have had killing frosts. In those areas of light frost, annuals like geranium, cannas, impatiens, and salvia are still in bloom. Fall foliage color finally arrived with much of the color coming from oaks, beech, kousa dogwood, flowering dogwood, styrax, witchhazel, red maples, ginkgo, sassafras, ash, and clethra. Late season perennials still in bloom are: Aconitum sp., (Monkshood), Aster tataricus, Sheffield Pink Chrysanthemum, Korean Chrysanthemums, and roses providing some color are: Rosa 'New Dawn' and R. ‘ Martha's Vineyard’. Fruits of Viburnum trilobum and Kousa dogwood are also providing color. Pests/Problems: A few ladybugs and western conifer seed bugs have started to enter buildings. There are no other insects or diseases to report.

East Region (Boston) - General Conditions: No report.

Central Region (Boylston) - General Conditions: No report.

Pioneer Valley Region (Amherst) - General Conditions: 16-17 inches of rain fell in the Pioneer Valley over a 10-day period about mid-month. Many low-lying areas now have significant areas of standing water and several rivers exceeded flood stage. Lawns in the area are a rich green, and September lawn renovations/seeding look well established.

Berkshire Region (Great Barrington) - General Conditions: After Berkshire County’s wettest October on record, the beginning of November is looking more settled. Surprisingly, there is still a lot of green foliage on trees and shrubs. It hardly looks like November. With the exception of native oaks, most of the deciduous woody species still with green foliage are non-native species, e.g. Norway maple. Hamamelis virginiana is in full bloom, and several late blooming perennials continue to bloom. The first frost of the season did not occur until October 21, about one month later than the average date of first frost. Problems: With leaves dropping from deciduous species, stem cankers are becoming more evident. Recently, I’ve encountered a widespread infection of Phomopsis canker on a mass planting of Rosa rugosa. This is a good time to monitor for stem cankers and egg masses of Gypsy Moth and Eastern Tent Caterpillar.

CAPE COD REGION - Roberta Clark, Horticulturist for Barnstable County, Barnstable.

SOUTHEAST REGION - Deborah Swanson, Horticulturist for UMass Extension in Plymouth County, Hanson.

EAST REGION - James R. Allen, Horticulturist and Greenhouse Manager for UMass Biology Department, Boston.

CENTRAL REGION - Joann Vieira, Superintendent of Horticulture, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston.

PIONEER VALLEY - Dan Gillman, Plant Pathologist, Urban Forestry Diagnostic Lab, UMass, Amherst.

BERKSHIRES - Ron Kujawski, Specialist, UMass Extension Landscape, Nursery & Urban Forestry Program, Amherst.

WOODY ORNAMENTALS

INSECTS

The vast majority of insects are now dormant. However, a few remain and a few others are about to have their last period of activity for this year.

Boxelder bug will soon be leaving its preferred host, female boxelder, where it feeds primarily on the seeds, and will seek shelter in protected areas, such as your house. When infested trees grow within close proximity to homes, thousands of these black bugs with red markings will cluster on the sides of homes.

Birch catkin bug is still active and feeding on seeds of birch. These very small and tan-colored bugs also can be a nuisance when infested plants are close to homes or other often utilized buildings.

Western conifer seedbug, which has been feeding mostly on seeds of conifers all summer, will soon seek shelter, often in homes. These bugs are rather large (approx. 3/4"), dark in color and rather slow movers. They emit a foul-smelling odor when handled.

Asian ladybird beetle (ladybugs) will seek winter shelter within the next month, depending on the weather. These dull-orange-colored beetles have between zero and 19 black spots and can invade by the thousands. Although very beneficial through much of the growing season by feeding on scale insects and aphids, they become a horrific nuisance when they invade houses. When handled, this insect exudes an orange colored liquid that is not only noxious, it can stain fabrics and other surfaces.

Management of House Invaders - The following are guidelines for managing insects that seek shelter indoors for the winter:

• inspect and fix all caulking around windows, doors and attic vents.
• repair all screening.
• repair loose siding that may act as entry points.
• once they are inside, vacuum up the invaders and then remove the bag from the cleaner and place outside. Otherwise, they will crawl out of the vacuum and re-invade the house.
• “bug bomb” type treatments can be utilized; but if the above precautions are utilized, these pests will be prevented from invading in the first place.

Reported by Robert Childs, Entomologist, UMass Extension Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program, Amherst

DISEASES

Deciduous trees and shrubs - As the plants go dormant, it is a good time to prune dead branches, and collect fallen leaves to reduce overwintering inoculum (the resting structures of leaf spot, blight and canker fungi). Remove this debris so fewer of these disease fungi will be present in the area to initiate infections next spring. In addition, if leaf spots and blights are recurring, unsightly problems, resistant varieties, or other plants better adapted to the site may be available to replace them.

Ramorum Blight, also known as Sudden Oak Death (SOD). Since 1995, oaks and tanoaks have been dying in the coastal counties of California. Since then, other types of plants have been found to be infected or associated with this disease, referred to as Sudden Oak Death, ramorum leaf blight or ramorum dieback, or by regulation as Phytophthora ramorum. In 1995, forest pathologists identified SOD in Mill Valley ( Marin County) on tanoak. Since that time, there was confirmation of the disease on various native hosts in fourteen coastal California counties (Marin, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo, Monterey, Santa Clara, Mendocino, Solano, Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Lake and San Francisco), and in Curry County, Oregon. Research conducted by the Agriculture Research Service, U. S. Forest Service, universities, and others is under way to better identify hosts, methods of detection and effective treatments. Currently, 64 plants are regulated, two of which at the genus level (Camellia and Rhododendron). There are no chemical treatments currently available to eliminate the disease in nursery stock.

Status of Phytophthora ramorum Monitoring Surveys . The 2005 National Nursery Survey continues. Forty-nine states and Puerto Rico reported survey results. Inspectors visited 3,663 nurseries and collected 64,814 samples. They identified 55 positive sites in seven states through the national surveys. To date in 2005 there were 99 confirmed positive detections of P. ramorum associated with nursery plants including 55 in CA, 4 in GA, 2 in LA, 20 in OR, 1 in TN, 1 in SC, and 16 in WA. The US Forest Service and states conducted nursery perimeter and general forest detection surveys in 38 states during 2005. As of September 23, there were no confirmed positives.

On September 15, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) reported the detection of P. ramorum on a white fir located at a tree farm in Santa Clara County – a quarantined county. This is the first report of the pathogen on white fir. In addition, CDFA found a camellia planted in a residential landscape infected with P. ramorum in El Dorado County on September 22. The camellia was a trace forward from a positive nursery. On September 29, the PPQ Beltsville lab confirmed the detection of P. ramorum on several rhododendrons and a kalmia sampled by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The detections were from four nurseries – two in King County, one in Pacific County, and one in Clark County. APHIS confirmed rhododendron infections at two additional nurseries on October 4. These nurseries are located in Snohomish and King Counties.

Dan Gillman, Plant Pathologist, based in the Urban Forestry Diagnostic Lab at UMass, Amherst.

WEEDS

At this point, any herbicide applications to control woody plant material will not be effective. Cut-stump treatments can continue for the next couple of weeks.

Treatment of winter annual weeds in ornamental beds with directed non-selective herbicides can continue through the month of November. Applications of glyphosate (will control perennials) or pelargonic acid (burndown of perennial top growth only) could be used.

Randall Prostak, Weed Specialist, UMass Extension, Plant, Insect & Soil Sciences Dept., Amherst

TURFGRASS

Insects:

With all the rain many of you experienced in October, I had hoped some of the grubs would not survive. However, yesterday we collected samples from a golf course that had been flooded for several days, and we found European chafer grubs near the soil surface, feeding actively and thriving. We figure the grubs had been underwater for five to seven days (or even longer in some sites), and the flooding clearly had no harmful impact on them. (And all the books say European chafers do better in drier conditions - that shows what we know, eh?)

Meanwhile most grub species other than European chafers should start to move downward now that we have finally had a few frosts. As the soil temperatures begin to drop, the grubs will soon stop feeding and start their vertical trek to stay below the frost line. Normally skunk activity subsides as well once the grubs leave the area. The bad news, as many of you will remember, is that European chafers are much less sensitive to cold conditions, and will stay near the surface well into December.

Finally, some turf managers have reported that they used trichlorfon (Dylox™) in late August to clean up grub "hot spots" and now they are seeing grubs in those same areas again. My guess is that in many situations we had two separate periods of egg hatch this year. Because it was so hot and dry (especially in southeastern Massachusetts) for much of the summer, a few beetles may have laid eggs "on schedule" in July and those eggs would have hatched into grubs that would have been active in late August (and would have been killed by the Dylox™). But many beetles delayed their egg laying until soil moisture improved, so some grubs did not emerge until well into September. Obviously they were not around when the Dylox™ was applied in late August, and are just now getting to a size that is tasty for the #*$%^&% skunks (or raccoons or crows). So the Dylox™ probably did not fail, it just was applied before the late-hatching grubs were around. Just a guess, but it makes sense, given the conditions many of you had this year.

Pat Vittum, Professor, Turf Entomology, Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences, UMass, Amherst.

Weeds:

As long as the warm weather continues, broadleaf herbicide applications can be made. Since turf growth has slowed, spot treatment would be preferred over broadcast applications. Applications made now will result in slow but still effective weed control.

Randall Prostak, Weed Specialist, UMass Extension, Plant, Insect & Soil Sciences Dept., Amherst

Don't forget to visit the UMass Extension Online Weed Herbarium!

UMass Extension’s Turf Management Guide and IPM Facts: For more information about the pests mentioned in this message, you will need to refer to the following publications: the Professional Guide for IPM in Turf for Massachusetts, 2003-2004 edition and Turf IPM Facts . Call (413) 545-2717 to order these publications from the UMASS Extension Bookstore.

DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES

UMass Laboratory Diagnoses for Turf and Landscape Problems: Accurate diagnosis for a turf or landscape problem can often eliminate or reduce the need for pesticide use. The UMass Extension Urban Forestry Diagnostic Laboratory is available to serve commercial landscape contractors, turf managers, arborists, nurseries, and other green industry professionals. It provides woody plant disease analysis, woody plant and turf insect identification, turfgrass identification, landscape and turf weed identification and offers a report of pest management strategies that are research based, economically sound, and environmentally appropriate for the situation. Send specimens and payment made payable to the University of Massachusetts to Urban Forestry Diagnostic Lab, 160 Holdsworth Way, Holdsworth Natural Resources Center, UMass, Amherst, MA 01003. The fee for a woody plant disease analysis is $50.00. All insect, weed, and turfgrass identification samples are $25.00 each. For complete information and instructions on how to send specimens, visit the Urban Forestry Diagnostic Lab page.

Turfgrass disease samples should be directed to the UMass Turf Disease Diagnostic Lab . This service is available ONLY to green industry professionals such as landscapers, lawn care companies, and golf course managers. For more info specifically on turf disease diagnostics, visit the Disease Diagnostics page at www.umassturf.org .

NEXT UPDATE: The next issue will be available in early December, 2005.

This message is produced by the UMASS Extension, Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program. The copy is prepared by Anna Greene from data and reports provided by the staff and faculty of the UMass Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program and the UMASS Extension Turf Program as well as cooperating horticulturists and Green Industry professionals. The text is adapted for access via the internet by Jason Lanier and made available to subscribers via electronic transmittal by Ellen Weeks.

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