Honeydew! (not the melon...)

Have you stood under a tree recently and felt "raindrops" falling onto you?  Or maybe you've discovered your car or patio furniture covered in a sticky mess?  Or, maybe similar to my experience....you're walking the dog and walk across a part of the sidewalk that causes your shoes to stick?  This is all from honeydew and it seems to be covering Central Texas at the moment.

Aphids being tended by acrobat ants.

Honeydew is the plant sugars that pass through the digestive track of aphids, so to put it bluntly- aphid poop.  Honeydew is sticky and can look like shiny droplets covering surface.  When you have a large population of aphids, then more honeydew is produced and that's when things get messy.  To make things even messier, honeydew can attract a fungus called sooty mold.  Sooty mold is black and grows on the honeydew covered areas.

So why all the honeydew now?  Just think of it as the perfect storm for aphids.  Remember back in July when we had all the rain and it was pouring every day for almost a week?  Wouldn't that be nice right about now?  I digress...so it's possible that the weather knocked down populations of natural enemies of aphids.  Yes, it would have knocked down the populations of aphids too, but aphids have the capability of reproducing rapidly and they do a much better job and increasing their population than their natural enemies.  When the natural enemies aren't available to keep the population down to a suitable level, the aphid population explodes and goes to town feeding on trees (and other plants) and creating honeydew and causing a huge mess.

If you are dealing with aphids and/ or honeydew right now, I would suggest blasting them with a high pressure water spray.  That suggestion may or may not be feasible for you depending on how tall the tree is that you are dealing with.  Treating the tree with an insecticide to reduce the aphid population is really not recommended, but if you feel that you MUST treat with an insecticide, then please hire a professional that has proper application equipment and BE AWARE OF DRIFT!

Beekeeping basics class in Bexar County

If you are interested in beekeeping or want to know what it entails to be a beekeeper, Texas AgriLife Extension in Bexar County will be hosting a Beekeeping Basics program, September 28- 29 2012.  The course is meant for those with very little to absolutely no experience with beekeeping.  The idea is to help those who have thought about starting a hive for honey production, hobby, environmental stewardship, etc.

This is a great program; you will learn a lot about beekeeping and bee biology.  This in Bexar County's second program, and it is highly recommended that you attend the field day on the 29^th, as that is where you will learn the most about the everyday beekeeping world.  You will get to touch a beehive, wear a beesuit, manipulate the hive, do an inspection and really learn what a typical beekeepers day is all about.

September 28^th is a classroom day, starting at 9AM and ending at 3PM.  Lunch and snacks will be provided.  Cost is $50, made out to the Bexar County Master Gardeners.  The class tends to fill up very fast so sign up early if you are interested.  Please see the following link for more information:

http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/files/2012/01/BeeBasics2.pdf

What: Beekeeping basics class

When: September 28-29, 2012

Where: Bexar County Extension Office 3355 Cherry Ridge, Suite 212 San Antonio, TX 78230

Cost: $50 (made out to Bexar County Master Gardeners)

Overrun with flies? Me too!

My family has a new pastime when we sit down to eat dinner.  Besides sharing our activities and things we learned and telling the boy (yet again) the story about the mean dragon, we stalk flies.  Have you been having a problem with flies?  They are driving me crazy...I think they're following me.  Hubby has compared them to Sammael from Hellboy, where you kill one and it multiplies.  The boy screeches "Mommy, get the fly smacker!" anytime he sees one fly past.  I am getting better at whacking them and even killed one when it flew past me in the air.

House fly.

People may be seeing house flies or, as in our case, blow flies.  These flies become more prevalent in the summer months due to an increase in population and a quick life cycle.  Under optimal conditions (such as now) they can go from egg to adult in 7 days!

House flies are about 3/8 of an inch with 4 dark stripes on the thorax.  The old "kid-thriller" of a fly spitting on your food when it lands is true; house flies have sponging mouthparts and need to dissolve solid food with saliva before slurping it up.  Adult females can lay hundreds of eggs.  Eggs are laid in warm, moist organic material in what I call "funky" areas- garbage, fecal material, decaying fruits and vegetables, lawn clippings or unmanaged compost piles. 

Blow flies resemble house flies, but are prettier (if possible with a fly).  They come in metallic colors of blue, bronze, green or black.  They lay their eggs in the same types of areas as house flies, but also are important a decomposers with animal carcasses.

Blow fly.

If you have a huge amount of flies emerge at once in your house, look for a broken sewer pipe or dead animal.  Also make sure that the garbage is being taken out often enough.  Since I don't have large numbers of flies at one time in my house paired with watching flies come in as the boy stands in the doorway arguing with me about some random item (like possibly closing the door so as to not let flies in....), my flies are coming in from outside.  I also know why I have them in the backyard- animal feces and the garbage area.  I pick up the dog poop at least once a week during the summer, but I think I need to bump that up to twice.  My garbage and recycling cans are already well away from any doorways to reduce flies from having easy access.  I also plan on cleaning my garbage and recycling cans out with soapy water and finishing it off with a 10% bleach solution rinse.

Other items to consider would be excluding the home to keep flies and other wee-beasties out.  There are also fly traps that contain a lure, but that's a little more effort than I want to expend.  I guess I'll stick to keeping my fly smacker (as the boy calls it) handy since I refuse to hang up random bags of water to "scare" off the flies.