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Home Gardener Pest Management 101

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What are some of the basic steps you can take to reduce insect and plant disease problems in your home Landscape and Garden?

For fruit trees and shrubs with aphids, mites, plant bugs, or other similar small sap-sucking insects this year- I plan to spray them with a dormant oil treatment early next spring. Supreme or Superior Dormant Oil is available at most garden stores.

For powdery mildew, the white powdery fungus that grows on the leaves on squash, melon, and cucumber- use a sulfur product or another fungicide when the white-mildew first appears.

For raspberry canes that you're now noticing have wilted tips, pruned off the top six to eight inches of this cane- this is where the raspberry horntail, a cane-boring insect, is feeding.

For squash bugs, apply kaolin clay which goes by the brand name Surround, or a pyrethrin-containing product to deter squash bugs from laying eggs on your plants.

For aphids, mites, leafhoppers, or other plant-sucking insects- apply horticultural oil or insecticidal soap. Apply these products in the morning before temperatures exceed about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

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