The first indicator of grub numbers to come is the number of adults. Right now we are starting to have the June bugs out and laying eggs. There are actually three types of grubs that can be found in turf areas. These would be larvae of the Japanese beetle, the June bug, and the green June bug. All of these insects cycle annually, and the green June bug is not really a turf pest, but rather is found in areas with high organic matter such as compost piles and flower beds.

Don't pull the trigger and treat for grubs at this time. We are about a month early. I usually say to treat at Logan County Fair Time. I know that the insects don't know what time it is, but people do. By timing treatments around the fair, it provides an easily remembered "marker" for us. Most publications indicate early August as the time to assess grub numbers and apply treatments if warranted. Most turfs in good condition can stand 8 or so grubs per square foot without damage becoming noticeable.

Looking at adult numbers right now just gives us a very rough idea of how many adults there are to lay eggs. By waiting another month, we give the eggs time to hatch to a stage where they can be counted and controls would be effective. Many controls are not timed at "first sight" but rather at "complete hatch." Controls applied when the first actual grub is seen can be a month or so ahead of the last egg hatching. In this case we want to allow for a complete hatch to assess numbers and, if needed, apply one grub control treatment. Even the early-apply products should be applied close to this August time period. A good example is the product Oftanol. It was promoted at first as a product that could be applied in May for grub control. It worked well a few seasons and then the microbes that break the chemical down began to build up to the point where it also had to be applied in the August time frame.

It's about that time once again when the lowly cricket makes a real nuisance of itself in your home. Add to this a large number of ants, and an ounce of prevention goes a long way. The best offense is a good defense, and that means putting down a preventative foundation treatment.

A foundation treatment entails spraying the foundation of the house and the adjacent foot or two of soil with permethrin or bifenthrin insecticide. This treatment creates a chemical barrier that the insects crawl through when trying to enter your home. If they don't die on the outside, they are very short lived on the inside. You can expect the chemical treatment to last for 3-4 weeks. Both of these chemicals are used on a wide range of plants, so should present no problems to flowers, shrubs, or turf.

Once crickets are on the inside, there are few effective options, and none that will do a good job over a period of time. These options include: spraying individual insects or small areas with an aerosol products containing pyrethrins, spraying baseboard areas with an aerosol containing permethrin, or a fly swatter.

Logan County Extension Office

The hatch is on. Even though Logan County is not in the heart of the 17 year cicada territory, there are spots experiencing large numbers. Here is a news release from Martha Smith, Horticulture Educator in Macomb, that discusses cicadas in depth.

Periodical Cicadas in Illinois, But Where?

The word is out.... 2007 is the year of the periodical cicadas! But not every area of the state will be inundated with these noisy insects.

There are two types of cicadas commonly found in large numbers in Illinois, explains Martha Smith, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator.

Dogday or annual cicadas emerge every year from the soil during the heat of the summer. Dogday cicadas are green and approximately 1½ inches long. The male "sings" to attract females, usually in late afternoon and early evening. Females do not have sound-producing membranes like the males.

Periodical cicadas are different. In the northern half of Illinois, they emerge every 17 years. In the southern half of the state, they emerge every 13 years.

This spring, the Northern Illinois Brood XIII of the 17-year periodical cicada is expected to emerge north of a line from northern Iroquois County on the east, dipping southward to northern Sangamon County in the center of the state, and then rising northward to Moline and other Quad Cities on the west. These guys haven't been seen since 1990. This brood has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere. On average, the emergence numbers could total more than 133,000 cicadas per acre. In the past, some emergences have had as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre. The south will be spared until the Great Southern Brood XIX emerges in 2011.

The periodical cicada adult is 1½ inches long and dark brown/black with red/orange eyes. Males will "sing" to attract females. The trilling is very loud and occurs during the sunny part of the day. The mating period lasts for two weeks; then the males die, and the singing ends.

The female lays eggs using her ovipositor to make a slit in small twigs of trees. Branches between 3/16 of an inch up to 1½ inches are preferred. The eggs hatch, and nymphs fall to the ground and tunnel down through the soil to feed on sap in a root until they emerge 13 or 17 years later. Dogday Cicadas emerge on a faster lifecycle, anywhere between two to five years.

Smith says the root-feeding damage impacts growth but does not cause enough damage to justify control. The egg-laying slit made in the twig may cause the twig to dry and break off. This damage, too, is not harmful enough on an established tree to warrant trying to control these insects. The danger for young trees is when their trunk diameters are small enough that slits made in the trunk may result in the trunk breaking.

Research has shown that insecticide applications will kill cicadas; but when analyzing overall egg-slit trunk/twig damage, there is little difference between treated and untreated test plots. The only way to protect small trees from serious damage is to protect the trunk with screening or other material. Trunks larger than 2½ inches in diameter tolerate the egg laying.

Birds and other predators feed on dogday cicadas. One noticeable predator is the cicada killer. This large wasp catches the cicada, stings the insect to paralyze it, and then buries it in an underground chamber where it lays eggs in the paralyzed cicada. When the eggs hatch, the wasp larvae feed on the paralyzed cicada.

If historical records are true, Southern Illinois will only have the usual dogday cicadas this summer. Northern Illinoisans will once again need snow shovels to scoop up dead cicadas, and they'll need earplugs to block out the cacophony of male cicadas. Residents along the boundary will have to wait and see what emerges. For some, the mass emergence of cicadas is one of nature's many wonders. For others, it is a nuisance that leaves streets and sidewalks slick and smelly with rotting carcasses. For more information on cicadas in Illinois visit http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cicadas/13or17year.html

Watch those cutworms! With many of the garden areas sporting a covering of chickweed, cutworms may have found an ideal egg laying site. Some of the cutworms actually cut plants, while others tend to just clip leaves. The dingy cutworms overwinter in our area, and tend to clip only leaf tips, while black cutworms blow in on the winds as moths. The moths lay eggs that hatch into the larvae that can cut plants. Permethrin and bifenthrin are both effective against cutworms.

Tomatoes have really taken off with the warm weather. Remember blossom end rot, especially with the uneven moisture conditions we have been experiencing. While blossom end rot is technically a calcium deficiency, it is really caused by uneven moisture supply to take the calcium around the plant. Mulching with 2-4 inches of material will greatly help your situation later at fruit set. If you are watering, use an inch a week. This amount, combined with mulching, should be more than adequate.

Logan County Extension Office

Few things strike fear in the hearts of tree owners like the mention of borers. Borers are most often the larvae of beetles or moths, and they do their damage where you can't see it. The eggs are laid on or under the bark, and the small hatchling chews through to the part of the tree they feed on. They spend almost their entire lives inside the tree, where they can't be seen or controlled.

May 20 to 26 has been selected as Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week because it coincides with the time of year that the adult beetles will begin to emerge. These borers have gotten a lot of press this past year. They are metallic green, about a half inch long, and make "D" shaped exit holes (unlike the ash borers we have had around here for many years which make "O" shaped holes).

Most borers are named for their primary target, but they also affect other species of trees and shrubs. As an example, the flat-headed apple borer can also affect pin oaks and about 15 other species. Many borers leave a tell-take hole in the trunk, but some such as the ash borer are weak and have to enter through a pruning or mechanical injury.

Here is a listing of common borers and their control times: Ash borers (early June and early July), Bronze birch borer (mid May and repeat two times at two week intervals), Dogwood borer (mid May and mid June), Flatheaded apple borer (late May and repeat in three weeks), Lilac borer (early June and early July), Locust borer (late August and mid September), Mountain ash borer (early June and mid July), Peach tree borer (mid June and mid July), Viburnum borer (early June and early July), and Zimmerman pine moth (April or August).

You can see borer control isn't an exact science. Treatment times and re-applications are hopefully timed to catch the hatching eggs on the outside of the trunk, or discourage the adults from laying eggs. Some new research shows that trees that are under stress give off a certain pheromone that attracts more borers to the tree. So, keeping your trees in good growing shape will go a long way to helping the situation. Fertilizing with the same rate of broadcast fertilizer used for lawns will help (apply it early May and early September), and watering during extreme dry periods as well (with an inch of broadcast water per week.

The product of choice for many borers is now permethrin, since Dursban is off the market. Imidacloprid is fairly new on the market. One trade name is Merit (sold for homeowners as Bayer Advanced Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Care). This product use rate is an ounce per inch of circumference of the tree trunk. You then mix it with three gallons of water and pour around the base of the tree. It may take a few months for it to translocate though the tree. A good time to apply it is in early spring when the sap rises. Each treatment lasts about a year. Fruit trees generally are treated differently with Sevin, or just using the regular spray program due to the possibility of residue in fruit

Zimmerman pine moth is one of those "kind of borers." It generally affects only severely weakened trees, and goes just under the bark to girdle the cambium layer. It seems like older Scotch, red, and Austrian pines are favorites when they begin to decline. Bird damage from yellow bellied sapsuckers on trunks and main limbs also looks like borer damage to many. This bird damage is easily recognized by the evenly spaced holes in a straight line.

How to identify the emerald ash borer beetle:

-- bright metallic emerald green color

-- half an inch long, bullet-shaped body

-- exit holes in bark shaped like the letter "D"

"There are a number of look-alikes that people might mistake for the emerald ash borer," said Nixon. "The tiger beetle, ground beetles, even some bees and wasps have the green color. Other borers make an oval or round exit hole. The "D" shape is distinctive. It's made by the shape of their body coming out of the tunnels in the bark -- perfectly flat on the bottom and rounded on the top."

In 2006 the beetles were spotted at ten sites in Kane County and six sites in northern Cook County in Illinois.

Insecticides containing imidacloprid have proven to be effective in preventing the ash borer from taking up residence in ash trees. The only brand currently available to homeowners is Bayer Advanced Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Control. Others can be professionally applied.

But, Nixon said that the best way to prevent infestation of the emerald ash borer is to purchase only local firewood and if you go camping, don't transport any left-over firewood. Leave it at the camp site.

The emerald ash borer was first identified in ash trees near Detroit in 2002 and has spread to neighboring states since then, most likely via packing materials and firewood. The larvae winter-over in the bark. Adult beetles emerge from the wood during May and June, then go on to infest a new neighborhood of unsuspecting ash trees.

Nixon said that, on their own power, the beetles only travel about half a mile a year. As with many other invasive species, with assistance from humans, the emerald ash borer can travel much greater distances and infest ash trees just about anywhere.

For more information, visit www.emeraldashborer.info/ or www.ipm.uiuc.edu.

The gardening calendar shows it is about time, from May 10^th to the 25^th, to start in on our tender vegetables. This group includes green beans, sweet corn, and tomato plants. It is also time for successive plantings of leaf lettuce, other greens, radishes, and spinach. The way the wind has blown, it is probably a good idea to provide some protection for tender transplants for a week or two to let them get established well.

I saw my first small tent from the Eastern Tent Caterpillar this weekend. It happened to be on one of their favorite trees – an apple tree. Egg hatch may be running as much as three weeks later than normal. Of course, with the crazy "spring" we've had, the insects are probably somewhat disoriented as well.

After hatching, the caterpillars create a white, silken tent in the branch crotches of crabapple, hawthorn, mountain ash, flowering cherry, and other trees and shrubs in the rose family. Eastern tent caterpillar is one of the earliest defoliators. The feeding damage does not kill the tree, but it does use some of the stored energy of the tree.

Control at this time can be accomplished by removing the tents, and the caterpillars inside, and taking a long way from the tree to dispose of. When caught early, the caterpillars tend to stay in the nest. As they grow, they will not be in the nest as much. Control with sprays of B.t., acephate, permethrin, carbaryl, etc. will also work.

Some of the effects of the late freeze are easily visible on fruit and shade trees. Trees and shrubs with exposed, tender leaf material (or even swollen buds in some instances) have partially dead leaves. It is common to see leaf tips that are brown on an otherwise healthy leaf. It is amazing there are a few apples set on at least some protected trees. There are even some later blooms coming out. If the bloom centers are brown, it indicates the bloom was damaged, and will not set fruit. Some plants had permanently damaged tips, while others are just extremely slow in initiating new buds.

Give things until about the end of May to determine what kind of permanent damage occurred. After that time, dead ends may be trimmed off. Also, keep things as positive as you can for the plants. Water, fertilizer, and pest control will probably be as important this year as they have ever been.

Logan County Extension Office

Remember pruning flowering shrubs and trees after they flower will help with the shaping of the plant, and will help with the number of buds available to bloom the following season. Examples for pruning at this time would be forsythia and redbuds.

Hold off on pruning those evergreens until we get toward the end of June. Pruning at this time will tend to cause extreme regrowth. This regrowth will tend to need pruning again. If not, the evergreen will be extremely "lanky."

There seems to be a biting insect outbreak going on. After a brave soul actually brought some in, and a little bit of research, it seems these are biting midges. They also are called biting gnats, punkies, no-see-ums, and worse.

Like anything in the biting fly family, they are hard to control. They don't need standing water to develop in, they aren't dawn and dusk feeders like mosquitos, and they don't "roost" in a particular area. They are also small enough to come through many window screens. And when they bite, they leave a painful welt. Smaller screen wire size will help keep them from entering the home, as will keeping windows shut. Using "bug light" bulbs will also attract fewer, as will the sodium lights outside.