ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702120013
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: dear john
SOURCE: JOHN ARBOGAST
One of the most common insects Extension Offices are asked about this time of year is a three-eighths-inch-long pest known as the Indian Meal Moth.
It is found in areas where dry foods or pet foods are stored, and identifying it is easy because of the two-tone color of its back. The front half is a grayish-white color; the lower half, a rusty red-brown color.
The adults usually fly at night and lay eggs on food such as a variety of grains, meal, breakfast foods, dried nuts, seeds, chocolate, powdered milk and especially dry pet foods. They fly in a zigzag fashion if disturbed during the day. After the eggs hatch, the young caterpillars begin spinning silken threads in the food they have infested. A clue to their presence is that webbing.
According to Eric Day, manager of the Insect Identification Lab at Virginia Tech, control of the Indian Meal Moth begins with the location of the infested food. A thorough cleanup, using a vacuum cleaner to get into the cracks and crevices of storage areas, will control this pest.
Clothes moths can be another winter insect worry. The adults are small (one to two inches) and yellowish to slightly gold- colored. They are not attracted to lights and usually hide when disturbed.
The larvae does the damage by feeding on wool products such as clothing, carpets, rugs, furs, fabrics, blankets and piano felts; or fabrics of vegetable origin (cotton) if the fabrics are mixed with wool or soiled with food particles; or on the underside of wool rugs where they can feed for a long time before they are detected.
Day said clothes can be protected either by frequent cleaning or storing (only clean items) in insect-free environments. He said that wool rugs should be inspected and cleaned on a regular basis as well.
Q: This past summer part of my yard was invaded by some kind of grass that I call wire grass because it looks like barbed wire. It seems to be dead now during the winter. How can I keep it out next summer? Also, how much of a mature oak tree can you prune and top without killing the whole tree? B.G., Salem
A: Wire grass, also know as wild Bermuda grass, is difficult to eradicate permanently from a bluegrass or fescue lawn without a lot of work. Here are your choices:
nWait until the wire grass greens up and is several inches tall; then, apply nonselective herbicide glyphosate, which is sold as Roundup; after at least seven days, rake out the dead grass and reseed. Please keep in mind with all the work involved in this choice that the wire grass might come back into the new turf in the next few years, because wire grass roots and runners can extend very deep into the soil.
nLearn to live with the wire grass but do everything you can to strengthen your bluegrass or fescue, such as slit seeding with new varieties of the desired grass to thicken the lawn; fertilizing in the fall, which is the preferred season for bluegrasses and fescues to receive nutrients, not in the spring, which is a good fertilizing season for wire grass; and watering dry lawn areas if needed, because wire grass likes hot, dry conditions which will likely weaken your good grasses.
The extent of pruning any tree should be limited by the amount of green parts the tree needs in order to produce its food for the season after the pruning.
A good rule to follow is to remove no more than one-third of the leaf-producing parts of a tree to ensure adequate production of food so the tree does not starve. Your mention of the term "top" implies big diameter cuts made in the tree. These large cut areas can lead to decay or can be entry locations for decay organisms.
Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to Dear John, c/o The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491. We need your mail, but this column can't reply to all letters. Those of wide appeal will be answered during the weeks that the subject is timely. Personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamps, stamped envelopes, samples or pictures.
From J.S.L., Martinsville, on ashes for moles: I am writing to explain that hardwood ashes scattered over a lawn can rid it of moles.
I remember in pre-World War I days when almost all country farmsteads had an ash hopper, which was an inclined wood trough that ashes from a stove or fireplace were emptied into. Rain water would leach the lye from the ashes. The water was caught and was used in making laundry soap.
The lye in the ashes is what deters the moles. My yard was ploughed with mole tracks (tunnels), but after using the ashes I have not seen a mole track in years. Sometimes it might take more than one application of ashes, which are spread like fertilizer.
John Arbogast is the agricultural and natural resources extension agent for Roanoke.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB