Earwigs have definitely been the insect of the week. They hide in damp places out of the sun during the day, and become more active at night. They do feed on a variety of many things, but are mainly scavengers. Inside the home, they definitely fit into the nuisance pest category.

Here is a link to the U of I fact sheet on earwigs http://ipm.illinois.edu/hyg/insects/earwig/index.html

Preserving insect enemies that reside in your garden will help control some insect pests, but sending additional enemies into the area may not be so useful. Many gardeners buy packages of "beneficial insects"—insects that feed on pests. Then they release the beneficial insects into the garden to control aphids and other crop-destroying insects. Most of the time people get much less out of these releases than they expected.

Three of the most common beneficial insects sold for this purpose are lady beetles, praying mantises and green lacewings. Two of these insects often do not do much good.

A common problem with mail-order lady beetles is that they fly away soon after being released. Because most of them will not stay in a backyard garden, only community-wide releases are likely to provide much benefit. Praying mantises are fascinating to watch, but they are not useful or efficient predators. Putting green lacewing eggs in the garden is really the most promising strategy, and even that has questionable value.

Already established populations of beneficial insects are likely to provide better results than introducing purchased insects. The following are some simple principles to help preserve any beneficial insects already living in your garden.

§ Learn how to recognize beneficial insects.

§ Minimize insecticide applications. Most insecticides kill beneficial insects along with the pests. For example, microbial insecticides that contain different strains of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis are toxic only to caterpillars, certain beetles or certain mosquito and black fly larvae.

§ Maintain ground covers, standing crops and crop residues. To survive the winter, many beneficial insects require the protection offered by vegetation. However, preserving ground covers and crop residues can also help certain pests. Evaluate this strategy according to its overall benefits and drawbacks.

§ Provide pollen and nectar sources or other supplemental foods. Plants with very small flowers make good sources of nectar for adults of certain beneficial wasps. Seed mixes of flowering plants intended to attract and nourish beneficial insects are sold at garden centers and through mail-order catalogs.

Cucurbits are basically everything in the squash and melon families. There are several potential insect problems with them, and today's column attempts to help minimize or prevent these problems. The first group of insects is the cucumber beetles. These can be green, black and yellow striped, or black and yellow spotted. The importance of the beetles is not that they eat small holes in the leaves, but that the beetles can transmit a bacterial wilt to the plants as they eat. The first thing you see is you have a plant that suddenly wilts on various runners, or the entire plant. The best means of controlling this disease is a good beetle control program. Current homeowner recommendations would include these products with the days to harvest restrictions in parenthesis: carbaryl (0), bifenthrin (3 days), or rotenone (1 day).

Of course, Japanese beetles love cucurbits as well. Their damage is direct leaf feeding. Remember they feed in groups, so once they get started you will have a battle on your hands. The carbaryl and bifenthrin are both good control measures.

Squash bugs are the next problem to discuss. Squash bugs are usually dark gray to black in color and like a long stink bug. Their eggs usually hatch mid-June to mid-July. Best control timing is when the eggs first hatch. Non-restricted products are sabadilla (1 day), which is an organic product that might be a little hard to find, and bifenthrin (3 days to harvest). One last note, if the squash bugs get past their early growth stages then physically removing them is about the only control method available.

The last insect problem on cucurbits is squash vine borers. These borers usually drill into the new runner areas and kill off individual runners at a time. The adult of these larvae are red and black clear-winged moths. Scout your plants and look for the adults, as well as entrance holes and the chewed-up plant material. Treat as soon as early damage occurs and use one of the following products for homeowners: carbaryl, bifenthrin, or rotenone. Days to harvest restrictions have already been covered (and these would also apply to pumpkin blossoms).

If you haven't checked for bagworms yet, now would be a good time. Small bags have been noticed in the county for the last few weeks. Re-treatment may be necessary in some cases. Carbaryl (Sevin) will work on the smaller sized bagworms, while the B.t. products, such as thuricide, may be required for the larger ones.

Remember bagworms frequently start in the tops of trees. Bagworms are the larvae of clearwing moths that don't fly too well. If you control the bagworms well, you may not have high populations for a few years.

This is the time of year to wrap up pruning chores on evergreens. This includes both needle-type and broadleaf evergreens. If you're wondering what a broadleaf evergreen is, that includes holly, rhododendron, and azalea. The logic behind pruning your yews at this time is to allow sufficient time for regrowth to become hardened off before winter, and to keep new growth from becoming too rank before the winter months.

Pruning evergreens is part art and part science, but mostly art. A few simple rules to follow make the job results much more pleasing. Upright growing evergreens, such as pines and spruces, should not have the main leader cut off. This will destroy the natural shape, and will make the resulting growth more susceptible to breaking off. If individual branches are being cut off, they should be cut back to a bud. This will allow the bud to become the new main branch. You can also control growth direction of branches in this way. If you are growing trees for cut Christmas trees, all bets are off, as you are only dealing with trees through the first seven years of their life or so.

Make sure you use the proper equipment. Individual pruning cuts are best done with bypass loppers or pruning shears. These make clean cuts without much damage to the remaining wood. The old anvil type shears and loppers cut to a point, then crush the remaining wood. For yews, junipers, and arborvitae that are trained to a certain size of shape, you will want to use hedge shears (electric or manual) that are sharp and properly tightened. Most of these types of shears can cut up to about a quarter of an inch in size.

When pruning evergreens, remember the dead zone. This is the area toward the center of the plant that doesn't receive much light. It also has few needles or active buds. Cutting into the dead zone will cause many years (or forever) of little green growth. Also remember to prune so that the base of plants is wider that the top. This allows sunlight to hit the bottom area as well, and keeps the bottom from dying up.

Many major tree diseases cause vascular system blockage. Verticillium wilt, oak wilt, and most of the canker diseases fall into the group. Usually a fungus "plugs the pipes" so there is reduced movement of water up and food down. This leads to dead areas above the blockage. Of course, if the blockage is on the main trunk you end up with a dead tree. It is often possible to see streaking of the wood, or a dark ring around the center portion of the branch or trunk with verticillium wilt, but a lab analysis is needed for definite confirmation. There are no cures for any of these diseases at this time. It is recommended to remove and destroy trees severely infected with verticillium, to help prevent transfer from root grafting. The list of trees affected by verticillium is very large, but good quality maples are very susceptible. There have been many affected trees this year, including maples and ashes. The only treatment is to water and fertilize to try and get new growth, and new water and food carrying tissues.

We have really had twenty-plus years of stressful weather. Just like us, trees like moderate weather. When we have extreme heat and cold, and no moisture or a flood, the trees are stressed. This stress makes them more susceptible to things that are always in the environment. Try to even out some of the extremes by watering when it is dry, fertilizing when you do the lawn (or just fertilize the tree), and mulching to even out the soil temperature in the root area. Remember that many diseases can be passed with pruning equipment, so disinfect your equipment between cuts.

Many pumpkins are already on their way, with seeds being sown a month ago. While this practice is great for producing pumpkins for pumpkin pie, it really doesn't work very well for producing the Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The Halloween pumpkins are best planted around Father's Day. This timing helps prevent the pumpkins from rotting before we get to the end of October.

Many different varieties are available, and they come in many sizes and shapes. The small pumpkins, ranging from two to five pounds, are called "pie" types. They are normally used for cooking and fall decorations, and include the Baby Bear variety. Intermediate and large varieties are primarily used for jack-o-lanterns. Many of the newer varieties have stronger side walls to aid in display and carving. The flesh of these varieties is generally poor in quality and not used for cooking. Processing pumpkins, that are canned commercially make poor carving pumpkins, and are more like a buff colored watermelon in appearance. The jumbo or mammoth varieties are mainly used for exhibition. These jumbos can weigh in the 900 pound range. For most homeowners, you might want to pass on these since moving a 900 pound pumpkin isn't for everyone. The other option is to try and grow one in place.

Pumpkins should be planted about now for carving or fall decoration. Vining pumpkins need at least 50 – 100 feet per hill, with the larger pumpkins requiring the larger area. Hills should be five to six feet apart and rows of hills should be 10 – 15 feet apart. Each hill should have about four seeds per hill, planted about an inch deep. The miniature varieties such as the Jack-Be-Little are sometimes grown in rows with seeds planted every eight to twelve inches, then thinned to about two feet apart in the rows. Fall decoration pumpkins should be cut from the vine before the vine dries in order to have a good stem attached to the pumpkin, but after the color is acceptable.

Keep the pumpkin bed free from weeds by shallow hoeing, and make sure it is watered during extended dry periods. Major pests are squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and vine borers. Most often, frequent applications of an insecticide such as carbaryl will help protect the new runners from the vine borers and also control the beetles that transmit the wilt virus. Make sure no applications are made to open blooms, that attract the bees for pollination, by applying insecticides in late afternoon or early evening.

Have you noticed a sticky substance on the leaves of trees and shrubs, or have you recently parked your car under the boughs of a spreading maple only to discover it splattered with a sticky material?

If so, don't blame the tree. The substance is not tree sap, but an indication of an infestation of insects call aphids. Aphids, often called plant lice, seem to be infesting many plants this summer. They can be found on maples, peppers, cabbage, pine trees, bluegrass, apples and many other plants.

An aphid is usually specific to one plant or possibly a very few species. For example, the tomato aphid is found on tomatoes; the pine bark aphid is found on pine limbs and trunks; and the cabbage aphid infests cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. However, some aphids are general feeders, such as the green peach aphid found on peach trees, peppers and potatoes.

Aphids are slow moving, winged or wingless, soft-bodied insects that vary in size and color. They multiply rapidly often producing young that mature in a week or less to produce even more aphids.

They also are very susceptible to disease and attack by parasites and predator insects. Therefore, an aphid population on a particular plant can increase rapidly or disappear just as fast.

Evidence of an aphid infestation includes curled leaves caused by aphid feeding, the presence of a sticky substance called "honeydew" with a sooty black mold growing on it and ash-colored skins shed by the aphids as they grow. Live aphids may have disappeared due to disease, lack of food or other factors.

A heavy stream of water will knock aphids off the plants. An insecticidal soap is an organic alternative. Heavy aphid infestations can generally be controlled by insecticide sprays including a few systemics. However, a few aphid species are resistant to some of these insecticides.

An infestation of aphids on healthy established shade trees generally does not need to be treated. The insignificant damage to the tree does not justify the cost of hiring a commercial sprayer who has the equipment to treat large trees. Heavy infestations on small or weak, ailing trees can be controlled with the above-mentioned insecticides.

Time and money is often better spent fertilizing and watering to insure good recovery and health. Avoid fertilizing trees and shrubs after July 15. Late summer fertilization can often stimulate lush growth that does not have sufficient time to harden off before winter sets in. The greatest response to fertilization is seen when it is applied in the fall or early spring.