Travis County Extension Office Temporarily Closed

On Tuesday of last week- June 29, 2010- the Travis County Extension office was damaged and flooded when a part of the roof collapsed during heavy rains. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but the office was flooded. Because of the damage, the office is closed until further notice.

People are working to get systems back into place for phone calls, emails and other sources of communication. Until then, please try to be patient. If you have a pressing bug question that needs to be answered you can leave a comment on this blog or you can contact a Texas AgriLife Extension Office in a different county.

If you are a Travis County Master Gardener and need more information on how the office closure affects you or for more information, please check the Central Texas Horticulture blog; Daphne was way better at explaining things more in depth.

Are you seeing holes in your lawn?

I've been getting calls about small holes in people's lawns that are surrounded by the piled up dirt from the hole. These holes are most likely caused by cicada killers, a type of solitary wasp.

Cicada killers are large wasps reaching a length of about 1.5 inches. The wasps have a reddish-brown head and thorax and a black and yellow marked abdomen. The wings are brownish.

Since the wasps are so large, people are often worried about their sting. Females are capable of stinging, males are not. Males are territorial and will often fly near humans walking through an area; this could be to intimidate you and have you get out of their territory or it could be that they need to check if you are a female cicada killer ready to mate. Either way, if you keep to your business they will keep to theirs. Females, while capable of stinging, are not aggressive.

Females dig burrows in the ground where they take cicadas that they paralyze with their sting. The cicadas are placed into chambers off of the main burrow and then an egg is laid in the chamber. When the egg hatches, the larvae consumes the cicada(s) provided for them.

Control really isn't necessary for these wasps.

Saturday, May 29th- Become a Garden Detective!

Get out your calendars and save the date!! No, I'm not getting married or anything (my husband might get a bit upset.....). Susan Decker, a Travis County Master Gardener, and I will be teaching anyone who wants to attend how to become a garden detective. Here's the skinny:

When: Saturday, May 29, 2010 10am-Noon

Where: Zilker Botanical Garden
2220 Barton Springs Rd.
Austin TX 78746

What: learn how to diagnose common problems in the garden

Who: Susan will cover plant diseases; Wizzie (that's me!) will cover insect problems

Here's the official blurb (it's much more eloquent than my ramblings):

Just when you think you've done everything right by your plants, one of them starts to go downhill. One of the biggest challenges for gardeners is correctly diagnosing plant problems and finding effective, safe solutions. Is your plant dying because of an insect, environmental or disease problem? Join us to learn the causes of plant problems, the process for diagnosing plant problems, and preventive garden management techniques. This seminar is free and open to the public. It is presented by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association, a volunteer arm of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Travis County. For information, see http://www.tcmastergardeners.org or call the Travis County Master Gardener's help desk at (512) 854-9600.

Feel free to bring samples of insects/ damage.