Bugs to Look Out For

We can’t really judge or predict what our winter was like that’ll give an indication of how many bugs we’ll get. I think we did get some good freezes to where it would take out some things, but I don’t know for certain. They’re very resilient sometimes. There are certain bugs that I’m sure it did a great job of killing off, because we did have a decent Ohio winter. I would say probably average Ohio winter here, finally. The last couple have been pretty mild.

One of the things that you’re not going to see drop off like we wish they would, are the ticks. There’s a southern tick that’s moved north, and it’s become very, very, very hardy. Unfortunately, ticks are just something that we have to watch out for. You can treat your yard for it, and we have stuff to get rid of flea and ticks in the yard. If you have pets, it’s just one of those things to be aware of. There’s a vaccine now for Lyme disease, so I get my dog vaccinated with that, because we go out in the woods and hunt and stuff like that. I want to make sure that he’s protected as much as possible. Then we give him a pill called, I think it’s Cordelio or Interceptor. One of them is for heartworm, the other one’s for fleas and ticks. It protects him on two fronts. That is something that’s going to continue to be a problem here that we haven’t seen in the past several decades. I don’t see a solution other than treating the lawn to keep those insects out of the area where the pets are. That is an absolutely great idea to protect your animals and be thinking that way.

The spotted lanternfly is one of those favorite bugs of mine. The prevailing wind pushes them the other direction, because they’re heavily up in Pennsylvania and New York. They will make their way over to the west. It takes them a little longer, but that insect is very easy to get rid of. If the lanternflies do get this way, they tell you though, kill them.

There’s several different sprays and insecticides we can use, and they’re very easy to kill. It’s just something you want to be aware of. They’re more probably a concern for crop farmers than they would be for the ornamental plants around our homes. If we do find them, if you do see them, they are very easy to get rid of, which is nice.

The state does also want you to report that you had them. That is something that the state’s using to track movement of them. It was done with the emerald ash borer years ago when that came in on pallet wood from China, discovered it up in Michigan. People would cut down the ash trees that died and chop it up and make it into firewood, transporting that firewood from place to place and moving the beetles hundreds and hundreds of miles, which would have taken years for them to naturally move.

Nurseries we work with are really good about keeping up on inspecting their plants and making sure that we’re not transporting this insect directions or distances that would normally be outside their flight path. I would imagine there are some people out there thinking, I just want to make sure whatever I’m going to buy is going to be safe already. All of our stuff comes in inspected for Japanese beetles, emerald ash, spotted lanternfly and more. There’s a lot of things that the state looks for. These growing nurseries are inspected to make sure products are not being moved from place to place with other things tagging along.

Remember, stop into Rohr’s Nursery to get the insecticide and products you need to keep your plants and animals healthy and bug-free.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).