TACKLING SPRING CHORES – WITH PESTS IN MIND!

By Chris Williams on March 27, 2019

In the yard itself –  1. Move firewood piles away from the house – If you moved your firewood close to the house this winter for convenience, now is the time to get that wood farther away since firewood piles attract all kinds of pests and invite wood-feeding insects that could have an eye on…

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Annual Tickborne disease update

By Chris Williams on March 25, 2019

As we move into the spring season and a more active time of year outdoors for many, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of doing tick checks.  I’ve been following CDC data for years on the reporting of Lyme and there was a record number of cases of tickborne diseases reported for the year 2017. …

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New invasive insect threats

By Chris Williams on March 21, 2019

As a backyard gardener, and orchardist, I’m always interested in keeping up with new exotic insect species arriving and becoming established in the US, because sooner or later they’ll be showing up at my place.  Two of the top four ‘most wanted’ (at least according to one researcher) are present in my yard. One is…

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Odorous House Ants appearing in Winter

By Chris Williams on March 20, 2019

I shouldn’t be too surprised seeing ant activity in a home as we’re moving into late winter, but I sort of was. This observation occurred after some snow and seriously cold weather. Odorous house ant (Tapinoma sessile) is a very elusive and therefore troublesome pest species that I’ve only rarely found actually nesting in homes…

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Wasps are appearing!

By Chris Williams on March 18, 2019

After mid-winter temperatures for most of last week this second full week of March is looking very mild temperatures in the 40’s and maybe even mid 50’s with rain later in the week. So long to my beloved xc ski trails for this season it seems. What kind of wasps are appearing? I got a…

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