Top Projects for August

The month of June was good to us in North Texas; we received a lot of rain, above normal in Dallas, but, these rains also encouraged fungal growth like brown patch in grasses, and powdery mildew on crepe myrtles, roses and many other plants. We have to work on this before the fall rains come, so lets get started.

Fungus Among Us: Texas A&M and other groups that still recommend the use of synthetic fertilizers say that if your lawn has a fungal problem you should not use fertilizers that contain high nitrogen, since this encourages the fungal disease. Howard Garrett and those few people that recommend organic fertilizers say: "Don't worry, be happy!" Most organic gardeners, that have been using natural fertilizers for several years, have reported fewer problems then their neighbors. Organic fertilizers have much lower nitrogen levels and are slower to release then synthetic fertilizers and do not encourage fungal activity. The other benefit is that since natural fertilizers have so much organic matter they help retain moisture.

Baking Soda: This is a great natural tool for combating all sorts of fungal problems. First mix one or two tablespoons to a gallon of water. Then add two ounces of Foliar Juice or low phosphate soap to the mixture. Using the mixture, lightly mist the foliage of diseased plants. For grass apply the same mixture over 400 square feet. For more information on baking soda click here.

The Landscape: Now that it is hot, you should be mowing at the highest level on your lawn mower. Leave the grass clippings on the ground so that they can break down and be used as a fertilizer.

If the last time you fertilized was before the heavy June rains, then fertilize again.

Water: The soils need one inch or more of watering once a week; in the South that could be more often. Moisture levels in grass is easily checked, just walk over the lawn and see if the blades spring back to an upright position. Do not forget to water the foundation. Houses with large trees planted near the foundation need more watering to prevent the trees from sucking up the moisture from under the foundation. It is said that a Silver Leaf Maple can uptake 30,000 gallons of water in one day. Imagine what could happen to your foundation if there is no moisture there. If you are one of those who feel like you should have hanging baskets a hanging, then water daily Solid Water from GreenSense in the baskets and potted plants. Check to be sure that they do need water and then water thoroughly.

I would add Foliar Juice or Kelp each time. Add some Apple Cider Vinegar to help prevent any fungi.

Mulch: Help conserve moisture and keep the soil temperature down by using a three-inch layer of heavy shredded mulch, like Hardwood, Cedar or Cypress bark. Do not use pine bark mulch. That stuff is cheap, but when we start getting rain again it will float away. Shredded mulch will interlock so that heavy winds or rains will not wash them away. I use Pine Straw at my house. I like the long needles and the fact that as they break down they help acidify the soil.

Weeding: If you have used mulch you should have fewer weeds, but you will notice that where the mulch has broken down and the sunlight can reach the soil weeds may have started to germinate or even take over. Do not wait to pull them or spray them, do it now! If spraying is easier use 20 percent vinegar to carefully spray the foliage of the weed, not the surrounding plants. On a hot day you can see the weeds die within minutes. Victory, hurrah!

Re-mulch the beds so that weeds will not germinate and if they do pop up it will be easier to pull the root system from the loose mulch then from the heavy clay.

The Vegetable Garden: Now is a good time to start your fall garden and many nurseries now have transplants in stock.

We do have several customers who will cut back their tomatoes and try to reuse them for the fall. Last year we had several people tell us that this did work for them. You might try it. Apply a heavy dosage of Kelp or seaweed, Cottonseed meal and Alfalfa Meal hoping that this will rejuvenate their tomatoes and produce a fall crop. Try it now on some of your plants and see how they do.

If birds got more of your tomatoes then you did, try growing some yellow varieties. Birds won't know when they're ripe and won't eat as many.

Carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and over-wintering cauliflower are the most popular vegetables to grow in the winter garden.

Perennials: These plants can be started from seed sown directly into the garden this month or next. The spring flowering perennials can be divided and transplanted this month or next. Be sure to do it during the coolest part of the day and water-in the plants thoroughly after transplanting.

Take a few minutes to pick spent and dead flowers on annuals and perennials, this will make a big difference in the health of the plant. As soon as most plant goes to seed, it will quit producing more flowers. Remove the spent flowers and the plants will flower longer. The garden also looks better without the unsightly spent blooms.

Planting: In late August plant fall chrysanthemums, petunias and dianthus. They will begin to bloom in late September. When selecting plants for your garden, look for a lot of healthy buds. Make sure that they are still tight and not about to open yet. Apply Kelp at time of planting and once a week thereafter.

Preventive Measures: Take time to examine the garden on a weekly basis to see if any bugs are ruining flowers or shrubs. Don't call your local nursery for help over the phone, bring in samples so that they can see what is causing the problem and recommend the appropriate steps correct the problem. One of the major pest problems at this time will be:

Bagworms: These pests are less then a quarter inch long when born, but as they feed they start to make silk bags that they carry with them wherever they go. They normally feed on the plant that they were born on, but since they are so small they can also be carried by wind to other plants. As they start to enlarge they will add little pieces of leaves to their bags to be used as camouflage, at this point they become visible to the naked eye as they start to hang off the host plant.

Around August, bagworms start to reach adulthood. As an adult the male moth is gray and small, is clear-winged and resembles a wasp.

The female has no wings or legs and never leaves the bag. The males mate with the female through a hole in the bag entrance. The female dies after laying her eggs. The eggs then over-winter in the bag. Bagworms grow on Junipers and arborvitae plants.

Spray a product that contains BT Kurstaki, effective only against worms from moths and butterflies, spray early in the year and reapply monthly. When these bagworms become visible pick them off by hand.

Do not apply Bt K once the bagworm has enclosed itself in the cocoon since it is no longer feeding.

Chinch Bugs: Adult chinch bugs are about one-fifth of an inch long and black with white wings folded over their backs. The insect mates early in the season when the temperature reaches 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The female lays eggs on roots, stems, leaves, leaf sheaths or crevices in nodes and other protected places. Eggs are laid over a two to three week period, with one female laying as many as 500 eggs. The young chinch bugs develop into adults in four to six weeks. Nymphs are yellow upon hatching but soon turn red and have a light colored band across their abdomens. With each molt, nymphs more closely resemble the adults. There are two to four generations per year.

The chinch bugs insert their slender beak into the grass and suck the plant juices. As the chinch bug sucks the plant juices, it releases a toxin that causes yellowish to brownish patches in turf. Typical injury appears as spreading patches of brown, dead grass. This pest is a sunshine-loving insect and seldom attacks grass in a dense shady area. Discolored areas caused by chinch bug feeding that are in open sunlight several hours daily may be "hot spots" for chinch bug damage. Most homeowners will first notice dead patches of grass along a driveway, curb, sidewalk or foundation of the home, due to the heat emitted from such objects.

Because they can fly, it is difficult to keep an area free of chinch bugs if they are emerging from neighboring lawns, golf courses or nearby croplands. Chinch bugs are very damaging to St. Augustine grass. You may also see them on grasses such as Zoysia, Bermuda, and centipede, but infestations usually occur where high populations have built up on St. Augustine grass.

Inspecting for Chinch Bugs: Scout turf on sunny days by slowly sliding your foot through the sod and watching for the bugs to crawl across your shoe. You can also identify infestations by using a large coffee can or gallon can with both ends removed. Press one end of the can about two or three inches into the soil, fill with soapy water, and watch for about five minutes. If chinch bugs are present, they will float to the surface. It is very important to check areas where the yellowish spots and the green grass meet in several different locations.

Thatch removal is important for eliminating conditions favorable for chinch bug survival. We have noticed that GreenSense Lawn & Garden Microbial Treatment helps reduce thatch. With proper watering practices you can promote beneficial fungi that attack chinch bugs. Low nitrogen fertilization slows chinch bug reproduction although the lawns regularly attacked by these insects (St. Augustine) are heavy feeders and prefer more fertilizer than other turf grasses. This is one of the reasons why chemical advocates do not recommend fertilizing at this time.

Carpenter Ants: These pesky creatures vary in size, ranging anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 an inch. Many people see carpenter ants and think that they are fire ants. Their color is normally black but also have some red to them. Most people will see swarms of winged carpenter ants inside their home, a good, or should I say a bad, sign that a colony is in your house damaging the wood as they make their nesting areas.

Unlike termites, carpenter ants excavate leaving a smooth finish; they also leave no mud or dirt in their paths or tunnels.

At my house I found some sawdust-like material at the base of a wall where carpenter ants had cleaned up their tunnels. As I was looking at this sawdust, trying to figure out where it came from, I noticed some more particles falling from above. I went to the garage and retrieved a ladder to get a better look. The ants were discarding their trash through some cracks between the molding and the wall.

I considered this an act of kindness on the ant's part. More often than not, CA's leave their debris between the walls or in other out-of-sight areas. And of course, you do not expect your home to have any damaging bugs until the house has a contract on it. When it is time for the inspector to come out, he gives you the bad news that your house needs thousands of dollars worth of repairs. At least now I knew I had a problem and started to inspect the rest of the house.

CA's will nest in dry wood, but prefer moist wood. If they were living in the attic then I knew there would be some in the 15 year old cedar siding that I had around the house. As I tried to squeeze between the holly bushes and the side of the house I saw carpenter ants traveling on the branches of these shrubs. I noticed that some of the branches were growing up against the house, and these CA's were quickly walking on to the siding. I then noticed that a sprinkler head was next to the house and had been spraying the wood for quite some time. The wood was very soft to the touch, so soft that when I poked it my finger went through the paint. There was no wood behind it. The carpenter ants had hollowed out large sections of the siding on the way up into the attic.

Being curious, I called Mike Bodain at the Pest Shop in Plano and asked him to explain Carpenter Ants to me. Of course Mike is very thorough and explained the following:

Carpenter Ants nests are more likely to be found in moist wood damaged by water leaks, such as around sinks, bathtubs, poorly sealed windows and door frames, roof leaks and poorly flashed chimneys. Carpenter ants may establish nests either inside or outside the structure in a number of different locations. Carpenter ants actually construct two different kinds of nests: one for breeding, where the queen lays her eggs and others for workers, where a large numbers of ants live away from the queen.

It is important to find where these ants originally came from; for that I called Michael Bosco, at Soils Alive and asked him to come to my house for a consultation. Michael walked through the house and found several pinholes where the ants were discarding their waste from the attic and into our living areas. He went into the attic and saw some ants on the west side of the house, Michael went outside and walked down to the wooded area and found several old trees that had a very large number of carpenter ants. He went towards the west side of the house and found ants crawling up the Nandinas and onto the siding where they disappeared and came out in the attic.

The amount of damage depends on how many nests are actually present within the structure, and how long the infestation has been active. The damage is not normally as serious as that from termites. Most of the time you will not be as lucky as I was. You will not see any external damage and you must do inspections that can be time consuming and frustrating because you do not even know if you have a problem. Using a screwdriver you can push the tip lightly into the wood or use the handle to tap wooden surfaces and listen to the change of sounds. My father-in-law is a doctor and has said that he would lend me his stethoscope. I would then be able to hear a sound similar to that of a piece of cellophane being crunched.

Once you have found the nest, don't spray them. Feed them baits that they will take back to the nest instead. Mike Bodain recommends OutSmartTM. This boric acid bait will kill them in a short time and can be used for other foraging ants as well. Michael Bosco says that Ascend is also a very effective bait and should be used outside.

Carpenter ants are very active at night so make sure you put your baits out then.

Patience is needed and eventually, the ants will die.

I would always seek the advise from one of the two experts above but if you are going to try to control the problem yourself, here are some tips:

1. In and immediately around the outside of the house use baits as your first form of attack. Baits that contain boric acid seem to work well for many people I used OutSmart™.
2. If your problem persist treat wall voids and other hidden spaces where ants are entering by carefully drilling a series of small holes and puffing boric acid inside these. Carpenter ants prefer to travel along wires, pipes and edges. If you suspect the nest location is in a wall, also treat behind pipe collars and behind the electrical switch plates and receptacles. NEVER SPRAY LIQUIDS OR INSERT METAL-TIPPED DEVICES AROUND ELECTRICAL OUTLETS!
3. If you think the nest is outdoors, inspect around the foundation of the building at night with a flashlight, especially around doors, weep holes and openings where utility pipes and wires enter the structure. Sandra and I have noticed that ants surround our bait stations immediately after the sun is no longer shining directly on them. Use a product like Ascend to bait outdoors. Beneficial Nematodes will help control nest that are easily accessible to them, like in woodpiles or where the affected wood comes in contact with the soil.

Prevention is the key to success. DO NOT USE INSECTICIDES THAT KILL ON CONTACT! Use baits.

Some of the steps that I have taken to prevent further damage:

1. Correct roof leaks, plumbing leaks and other moisture problems which will attract carpenter ants. We noticed some discoloring at the top of a window frame. Upon inspection we noticed that when the house had been re-roofed, the roofers failed to install flashing. This caused the wood to be moist and also found some CA damage. We called a roofer to come and repair this problem.
2. As we walked around the house we found some mulch had been piled up too high and was creating easy access to the cedar siding. After knocking this down we left a three inch space between ground and siding. Eliminate all contact of wood and soil.
3. As mentioned earlier, all branches from any vegetation should be cut back from the roof or siding of the house.
4. In past newsletters I told you about the use of Stuf-fit, caulking and Foam Insulation to seal cracks and openings in the foundation, especially where utility pipes and wires enter from the outside. Just a note: my house has about 2800 square feet of living spaces and I used three feet of Stuf-fit around the entire perimeter of the house to prevent insects from entering through the weep holes in the lower level of bricks.
5. Do not place firewood or other wooden debris near the foundation of the house or near a fence and remember to keep these stacks off of the ground.
6. Use Beneficial Nematodes to control CA's and other ground dwelling insects.

DO NOT USE INSECTICIDES THAT KILL ON CONTACT! Use baits.

For professional help contact Michael Bodan at the Pest Shop in Plano or call him at 972-519-9118. You can also contact Michael Bosco at Soils Alive, or call him at 214-704-9118.

The Concord

On July 25^th, I was at home relaxing in front of the boob tube when a Special News bulletin from NBC came on announcing the crash of one of the Concords flown by Air France. I sat up not believing what I just heard. The Concord had been in service for so many years without any major problems, I thought for sure it had been sabotaged. We now know from investigations that it was a series of equipment failure that caused the accident.

Now, you wonder why I bring this up? Well, back in 1978, I went through training with Braniff International to become a Flight Attendant. After a rigorous and accelerated training program I was one of the few F/A's in the world to be qualified for service on the Concord. I earned my wings around the 15^th of June just to be told that I would have to wait until June 21^st for my first flight. But, I could not wait. I wanted to get that first flight out of the way. I knew that I was going to screw up and felt that the quicker I did the more comfortable I would be after that.

I called scheduling and told them that I had just graduated and really needed to get on a flight. The scheduler told me that he would be glad to send me out since they were shorthanded and I had two choices. One was on a 747 with 14 other flight attendants to Hawaii. On a long trip on a full plane my screw-ups would not be that noticeable. The second choice was a short trip from Washington to Dallas on the Concorde. The flight would be full of well-to-do passengers. Only 100 people, but the service was a four coarse meal plus a lot of champagne, wine and caviar. My chances of ever getting this trip again were not very good.

Well, you can figure out which trip I took. I deadheaded to Washington, traveled as a passenger (in first class, of course) and arrived at Dulles International airport. As we taxied towards the designated parking area I saw the Concord through the window. WOW! What a beautiful airplane.

I do not remember how I got to the Concord; I actually think that I walked from one plane to the other. I was truly amazed by the sleek lines of the plane and all the activity going on around the airplane.

I tried to stand out of the way of the mechanics, caterers and other hurried airport employees as they prepared the plane for it's next flight. I heard some commotion, or should I say profanity by one mechanic that seemed to be having trouble loosening a cap or bolt from the bottom of the airplane. This guy was standing on the back of a large utility truck, he seemed to be on a stage as several mechanics gathered around to consult the manual and among each other as to the correct way to loosen this cap. After thirty minutes or so, someone suggested pushing it up while turning counter-clockwise or something like that.

The next thing we knew, the big mechanic on the stage was screaming and a hollering as a blue liquid fell on his head and covered him up within seconds. As he jumped from the utility truck you could see the whites of his eyes. Now personally I was afraid for him. The way he was screaming I thought that his skin was gong to fall off, but the other mechanics around him could only laugh. One person standing nearby turned the hose on and washed him off. After a couple of minutes the laughter died down and I was able to find out that the blue stuff was the water from the septic tank, and the guy had been covered in……well you know what is in a septic tank.

As departure time got near we were told that several people had canceled their flight, and we were only going to have 35 passengers. That meant that even the flight crew would be eating lobster, filet mignon and chocolate muse for desert.

Since the flight was fairly empty the senior F/A told me that I could sit in any empty chair I wished, so I grabbed a window seat towards the back of the airplane. When the airplane took off I was pushed back into my seat as the jet went into a steep climb. I looked out the window and noticed that the airplane was in such a steep climb that it seemed like the earth was perpendicular to the plane. WOW!

I could go on and bore you about the service of the meals and beverages but, why?

Soon after the service was finished and just after 8:00 pm I sat down to look out the window. We were flying so high that the curvature of the earth was clearly visible. I was amazed by the colors in the sky that were changing quickly with the setting sun.

I was truly grateful for the opportunity that I was given when I worked the Concord and for the time I worked with Braniff; an opportunity that lasted until 1982. I enjoyed working in close proximity with passengers and learned to be very sarcastic while doing so. Some people think that I am still a smart ass, but all I am trying to do is have fun.