507 Mosquitoes

Hello Listener,

This month, we discuss our least favorite summertime pest, the Mosquito. We felt very itchy while doing this episode. We review some basic mosquito biology, common species and diseases they transmit in Maryland, and give some tips on how to reduce your chance of getting bitten.

- NPR - A Guide To Mosquito Repellents 
- MDA Mosquito Control Program 

We also have our: 

• Native Plant of the Month - Blue Huckleberry ( Gaylussacia frondosa ) ~29:00
• Bug of the Month –  Stick Insects ~32:00
• Garden Tips of the Month – ~39:00

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The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Principal Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture; Rachel Rhodes- Senior Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne's County); and Emily Zobel- Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

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Transcript

Garden Thyme Podcast Transcript: S5:E04 
 Mosquitoes 

Note: The Garden Thyme Podcast is produced for the ear and is designed to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human trancribers, and may contain errors. 
 

: Up Beat Music:

Rachel

Hello, listener. Welcome to the University of Maryland extension presents the Garden Time podcast, where we talk about getting down and dirty in your garden. We're your hosts. I'm Rachel.

Mikaela

I'm Mikaela.

Emily

And I'm Emily.

Rachel

In this month's episode, we're talking about that favorite summer time insect that we all don't get along with - mosquitoes.

:Up Beat Music:

Rachel

 All right, we're friends here, right? We've all encountered people in our lifetimes that we just don't mesh with. Well, everyone, here comes one of those insects that we just don't mesh with. Mosquitoes. They're here for the summer. They're the uninvited guest who leaves us with welts and hives and a side of itchiness. So what can we do as gardeners and homeowners to combat them? First and foremost, we have to understand their life cycle. Mosquitoes are small, primitive flies that breed in standing water. And during their lifetime, they pass through four distinct stages. Egg larvae, pupa, and adult.

Mikaela

For all the fifth graders out there, that's complete metamorphosis.

Rachel

I think they're teaching in second grade now.

Mikaela

Fletcher learned it in kindergarten. I'm like, wow, I'm way behind, man.

Emily

Yeah, that's a pretty complex word.

Mikaela

Exactly.

Emily

Anamorphosis.

Mikaela

She couldn't get it out. She couldn't get it all out. But she knew where to go with it. She started with the m and stumbled. So that was good.

Rachel

Yeah. Alright, so eggs are laid near water and they hatch into larvae, which are wigglers within a few days. In many cases, the eggs are laid in bunches in distinct raft like structures, but they also may be laid singly. The wrigglers feed on microscopic plant life and they molt several times as they grow and become tumblers or pupae that subsequently turn into adults. And depending on the temperature, the entire process for some species can take place in a very short amount of time, like from seven to ten days.

Mikaela

Yeah. And you can't always see the eggs in the water just by looking, but often you can see the larva because they. They move in like a worm like manner, which is why they get that name, wigglers.

Rachel

I think they move in like an inchworm kind of like manner.

Mikaela

Yeah. In like a jerky inchworm kind of movement.

Rachel

Yeah, yeah.

Emily

Not gonna lie, whenever I go to, like, water my plants and I see them wiggling around in the top, I kind of dump out my watering can and refill it with clean water to water my plants. Because for some weird reason, I can't water my plants with water with mosquito larvae in it.

Rachel

Right.

Mikaela

In your lizard brain, you think they'll hatch and then they'll be mosquitoes if you dump them out? They aren't mosquitoes anymore.

Emily

Yeah, basically. Oh, there's just something about them. Even as an entomologist where I'm like, ew, these things are just gross. I just. Mosquitoes not liked.

Mikaela

Nope. So it's actually only the adult female mosquitoes that have what we call a blood meal. And that's where they need proteins from blood in order to lay and create their eggs, whereas adult males do not. So again, females must take a blood meal before laying their eggs, and it provides those nutrients needed for the production. And studies also show that the number of eggs a female lays is directly related to the amount of blood she consumes. So if she has a bigger blood meal, she'll lay more eggs. Right. Makes sense. Adult female mosquitoes lay between 52 hundred eggs at a time. That's a massive amount of eggs, by the way. No wonder a bucket that's been laying out in the sun for a day or two gets full of those little wrigglers. Because all it takes is one female mosquito to lay that many eggs. So the bite of a mosquito in and of itself doesn't cause much harm. Although a lot of people will show an inflammatory response to mosquito saliva in the terms of an itchy, bumpy kind of skin right at the site of where a bite was made. And some people react more strongly than others.

Mikaela

It really depends on your sensitivity. I know I have very sensitive skin, so I tend to react and have a much bigger welt than, say, my husband, who walks next to me and does not receive nearly as many bug bites nor as badly as I do. 

Rachel

Also think that kids react worse too.

Mikaela

Right. Kids usually have very sensitive skins or have high sensitivities. Yeah, I agree with that. They also don't seem to be as aware, so maybe they don't swat them as quickly as like I would like. I can feel it pretty, pretty quickly. But yet then I watch a mosquito biting my son's forehead and he doesn't do a single thing right. He just sits there and takes it.

Rachel

It's because they have so much going on in their little brains, and they're trying to absorb the environment around them and, you know, they just don't notice it yet. I.

Mikaela

And then, you know, like, the forehead is where there's a really thin amount of skin over your skull, so it, like, reacts very badly. Yeah, it's sort of like you feel powerless. Cause you can see it from a really long ways away. So you start sprinting to, like, go smack his forehead. But it's too late.

Rachel

It's too late. Sorry, kid.

Mikaela

It's an action movie. I can't save my son from mosquitoes.

Emily

So one of my favorite fun facts about mosquitoes is that why we have a lot of varieties of mosquitoes, we have some that are generalist feeders, will feed on anything. Some are specialized to feed on mammal blood, like us. And then there are others that feed on the blood of things like amphibians. And then there's also some that are specialized to feed only on reptilian blood. And there are even mosquitoes that have been observed feeding on the blood of other insects. So that's crazy. Imagine that. Yeah, it's pretty weird.

Mikaela

One of the mosquitoes of concern to humans, which is just the common house mosquito, I think it's called, also prefers bird blood, which is why it's a species of concern, is, I think it's a carrier for West Nile because it's a bird born illness.

Emily

That would make sense.

Mikaela

Yeah.

Emily

Rachel just had the shutters. Yeah.

Mikaela

This is gonna be.

Emily

This whole episode is about Rachel.

Mikaela

I know. I was gonna say everybody listening. I hope it, like, it gives you a little bit of itch. Just know that it's not there. It's in your head. So male mosquitoes can find their female counterparts by listening to the sound of their wings beating. And the males can identify the correct species by the pitch of the females wings, which is pretty impressive and might be why. So I know, I don't know if it's all male mosquitoes, but many have a feathery antennae, sort of like some of the moth antennae. Maybe it's for that higher sensitivity of detecting the female wings.

Rachel

Oh, wow. They're so smart.

Mikaela

I don't know if smart's the right word, but they're very developed.

Rachel

So also a mosquito can smell the carbon dioxide you exhale from about 60 to 75ft away, and they can smell your sweat from about 100ft away. So they know where you are at.

Mikaela

All times, even with really good antiperspirants and deodorants.

Rachel

Yes. What is that song from the eighties? That's like, every step you take, every.

Mikaela

Breath you oh, yeah I'll be watching you I'll be smelling you I'll be.

Rachel

Smelling you the new mosquito tune for the summer. So both the male and female mosquitoes use the proboscis to feed on flower nectar and fruit juices. So they don't always want your blood just part of the time.

Mikaela

Mosquitoes are pollinators, right?

Rachel

Yeah.

Emily

Yeah, to some extent they are. So we talked about how only the female mosquitoes feed on blood earlier, and their proboscis is basically designed slightly different. The male proboscis is not sharp enough to pierce your skin, but the female proboscis has six different needle like structures that are used to pierce your skin. And then she actually tap into a blood vessel. And if you want to see a really creepy video, PBS has a video of a mosquito actually feeding where you can see this happening. It is really creepy and really gross, but also very cool.

Rachel

That is pretty cool.

Mikaela

So while there are about approximately 200 species of mosquitoes within the United States, there are about 50 species in Maryland. I guess not surprising, given how many wetlands and, you know, water proximity that we have here. So, typically, control of mosquito species focuses on about three of them. And these are carriers of certain illnesses that we have to be aware of. So the biggest one is, of course, the invasive asian tiger mosquito, or aedes elbopictus. And then there's yellow fever mosquito, which is actually very uncommon, but I think they include it in their plans because it is a carrier of yellow fever. So that's aedes aegypti. And then there's the common house mosquito, which is culex pipiens.

Rachel

He's got a cute name, or she has a cute name, culex culex.

Mikaela

And they're actually different genus. And the common house mosquito. I have to look at the study again, but I think they've done some captures around the Baltimore area and did, like, a proportion of these different species that they found in them. Very rarely did they find the yellow fever mosquito. And I think 70% of the mosquitoes they caught were the asian tiger mosquito, and then, like, approximately 30% was the common house mosquito. So less of a concern than the asian tiger species.

Rachel

The largest mosquito in Maryland is the gallanipper. It reaches nearly one and a half inches long and is a very robust, striking mosquito. They are more active during warmer months of the year during very abundant rainfall. These floodwater mosquitoes lay eggs in a low lying area with damp soil and hatch when these areas flood following a dry period. So another fun fact about this mosquito is that these are one of the very few mosquito species whose larvae eat other mosquito larvae.

Emily

So, I mean, I'd almost call it beneficial in that case, but I don't want to get bit by it either.

Rachel

I know, right?

Mikaela

It's like the size of three other mosquitoes. Maybe more than that. I don't know.

Emily

Okay, so that's it for our fun mosquito facts.

Mikaela

But there's more yet to come.

Rachel

We always have more. So, as gardeners and as homeowners, one of the reasons that we focus on mosquitoes so much is because they are vectors. They transmit diseases to humans and to our animals. And as a disclaimer, if you have a concern about a mosquito borne illness, please reach out to your medical provider or your veterinarian. So mosquitoes have plagued humans throughout history, whether it be malaria or yellow fever, used to be common diseases throughout the United States, but they have been successfully eliminated through widespread public health efforts. Currently, viral encephalitis are most common mosquito borne illnesses transmitted to people. Encephalitis means a inflammation of the brain and can be caused by various viruses and bacteria in addition to those transmitted by mosquitoes. Mosquito borne strains of viral encephalitis include eastern equine, St. Louis, La Crosse, and most notably, West Nile virus. Birds and small mammals are important natural hosts for these viruses, which are transmitted to humans through a bite of an infected mosquito. And then we have West Nile. It's been found throughout the continental US. In recent years in Maryland, we've had ten cases reported in 2023. However, very few mosquitoes, less than 1%, are infected, and the chances of being severely ill from one mosquito bite are extremely small.

Rachel

If you have pets, the most prevalent mosquito borne disease that we should be concerned with in the mid Atlantic is canine heartworm disease. The nematode worm, diphyllaria imidis, is known as the heartworm, or dog heartworm, and this causes heartworm disease in animals. This is a parasitic roundworm that is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito mosquito, which carries the heartworm larva, and that's called mycoflare, from an infected host to a new one. Once inside the new host, the larvae grows into an adult worm within a few months, and they live in the blood vessels that supply the heart and the lungs. Infected animals may develop severe circulatory problems and display symptoms such as coughing, labored breathing, and loss of vitality. This is a serious condition in dogs, and you should consult with your veterinarian for preventative drug treatment. And here's a caveat that you might not know about heartworms. Cats can also get heartworms. So cats acquire heartworms far less than dogs in the same geographic location, with about five to 20% affected. And only around 25% of heartworms reach adulthood in cats because they have a smaller body. Cats typically also have a really low worm burden, usually only one to four worms.

Rachel

And less than 20% of those worms will reproduce into Michael Flary and infect the infective form of heartworm. But if you want something to look at, something really cool, look up a video about heartworms and blood smears. Because they wiggle like the larvae form of a mosquito in water. That's how they wiggle.

Mikaela

I trust you.

Emily

So unfortunately, there's no easy solution for managing mosquitoes in our homes and landscapes. But we do have some tips to sort of reduce their numbers to decrease the likelihood of you and your family and your guests and your pets getting bitten. Many mosquito infestations can in fact be tracked back to backyard containers that are filled with water. So all of those kids toys on any of our decorative pots, cans, tire swings, plugged up rain gutters, any and all of those great places where mosquitoes can breed in. The asian tiger only needs a few tablespoons of water in order to breed. So one of the easiest things that we can do is dump all of that standing water. If you have the corrugated drown pipes coming off of your downspout, those are really nice because they move water away from our foundations. But each one of those corrugated parts is a perfect place for standing water. So one tip that you can do is put pantyhose on both ends. Water can come through. Mosquitoes can't go in. You can drill holes in the bottom of things like your recycling containers or tire swings in order to allow water to drain out of them.

Emily

If you have things like bird baths, make sure that you are emptying them out and refilling them as needed. If you have water that cannot be drained or refreshed, such as ponds or in fountains, you can get the mosquito dunks, which uses bacillus thuringentis, which considered a larvae site. And basically what happens is it prevents those wigglers or those larvae from developing into adult mosquitoes. They do not harm non target species, so they are not going to have any sort of negative effect on things like frogs or fish or dragonfly and damselfly larvae. This type of Bt is very specialized just to fly larvae. So the other thing that you can potentially do with one of these Bt tabs is make what Doug tallamy called the mosquito bucket of doom. So he would basically get a five gallon bucket, and he'd fill it up with water and some sort of, like, grass or hay or straw or leaves. So you had some organic matter in there, and he'd put one of these dunks, and the idea is that this bucket with all this good organic matter would convince all of those early spring female mosquitoes to come lay their eggs there instead of any other place, and then they wouldn't make it to adulthood, and then you'd slowly decrease your population kind of throughout the whole summer.

Emily

So this is a nice way to kind of potentially control them. I started doing it, and then I forgot to keep putting the dunks in it, and it just became this big, moldy, festering bucket. So if you're going to do it, remember to clean it out, like, once a month, refresh it, and put in a brand new dunkin, or else it ends up just being kind of gross. So sorry, Doug. I kind of failed at that.

Mikaela

I started that a couple of weeks ago. I'm gonna try and change it out every four weeks, and I'm going to do the whole thing over. I'm not going to just keep adding the dunks because I think it'll get too gross. I can already kind of, kind of smell it, but you don't put it right next to your back door. You try and hide it in the foliage a little bit. And I've also heard it helps to paint the buckets black or to use a black bucket because they're attracted more to that color.

Emily

I think my mistake was I was. I dumped it out once or twice, and then, like, in the heat of the summer, I was like, I'm just gonna top this off with water and put in another dunk. And that's when, like, in, when the august heat hit, it just became, like, a gross mess.

Mikaela

So I think it'll get pretty raunchy. I might even try and go every three weeks to keep it freshen.

Rachel

Another fun fact, mosquitoes like red, orange, blue, and black.

Emily

Well, there you go.

Mikaela

Well, that makes sense. I have a red bucket. You know what? I like the theory. I'm going to try it and see what happens. So far, I've only gotten a couple of mosquito bites, but I don't think they've been super awful yet this year. So we'll see.

Rachel

I'm here for your experiment.

Mikaela

I'll report back.

Emily

So, one common question that we always get about mosquitoes is what plants can I put in my yard in order to repel them? And unfortunately, this is kind of a growing myth that you oftentimes will see around the Internet. So while there are several plants that have oils that may repel mosquitoes and may prevent bites, it's going to be very difficult to plant enough of these plants in order to prevent all mosquitoes from being in your yard. So better to focus on planting plants that have other environmental benefits and that you yourself enjoy.

Mikaela

Yeah, that's absolutely right, Emily. I know a lot of the like garden and yard magazines will do articles about plant these ten plants to get rid of mosquitoes. And it's really all just a myth, although a lot of them end up being herbs which are sort of beneficial anyways. But one of the biggest myths is the citronella plant, which has a very low repellency rate even in the oils. It actually ends up being, I think lemon balm ended up being the highest in the research I was looking at. So lemon balm had a very high for a plant and their oils for being repellent, which is probably why the lemon eucalyptus repellents tend to work a little bit better than others. So even if you're free of mosquito breeding sites, you can still be bitten, since mosquitoes can travel miles from their breeding site in search of a blood meal. So here are some tips to reduce your likelihood of being bitten. Of course, making sure windows and doors and screens are bug tight, of course, any spaces or like what happens to me a lot if there's a little tear or a hole in your screens, mosquitoes can obviously get through that.

Mikaela

So most species feed at dawn, dusk and in the early evening, with the exception of the asian tiger mosquito, which feeds all the time.

Emily

Unfortunately, it's always hungry like me.

Mikaela

That's right. So avoid being outside during those times of heavy feeding or heavy populations, at dawn, dusk and in the early evening. Or you can wear long sleeve shirts and pants, obviously not those colors that Emily just mentioned of the bucket. So maybe like a light white colored outfit. So mosquitoes are repelled by high winds. They're not really great flyers, so even electric fans or, you know, if you have a deck and you outfit your deck with some bigger fans, that might provide some relief, especially at outdoor events. And just for the record, a lot of these vitamin B or ultrasonic devices have not proven effective in preventing mosquito bites. It's basically just another method that you throw money at, hoping that you might not be as itchy this summer. So insect repellents applied judiciously to expose skin. That's obviously the, the preferred method, especially if you're going to be outside during these times. And these often deter mosquitoes from biting. They may have to be reapplied depending on the product and depending on how long you're going to be outside. In some products, you spray the clothing and not your skin, and you can spray your clothing anyways, even if you do spray your skin, because mosquitoes can bite through clothing, as we all have found out.

Mikaela

So be sure to follow the directions on all of these products. As a repellent, they still have some kind of chemical associated with them. So it's good to follow those rules. So DEET is obviously a very popular one. It's one that we probably see the most often and has the most effective rate or efficacy rate. So the higher percentage of deet in the product, the longer that protection lasts. And you also have to pay attention and make sure that that product can be applied to fabrics or gear, because there are a lot of deep products that are not rated for gear, and it's one that we have the most information and research with because it's been used for 40 years.

Emily

There is a growing concern about the use of DEET because it has been found to be able to be absorbed by your skin, although it gets processed in our livers and you urinate it back out, so it does not stay in the human body. Because of this, people are kind of looking for non deet alternatives. So there are some non deet alternatives out there. We do recommend always checking the active ingredient is.

Mikaela

So my favorite mosquito repellent is those that use a 20% solution of picaridin. So this is something that can be applied on either the skin or clothing. It doesn't damage or affect plastics or fabrics, which is nice. And it is a repellent for both insects and ticks, which not all repellents are. It has little to no odor, which I really love, and it has a really clean feel. It doesn't feel greasy like some of these other products. Maybe we can include it in the show notes. But NPR had a really interesting article that they've done a couple of times. I think the more recent one was 2018, and they have a nice chart with the testing of effectiveness of mosquito repellents. And they compare a lot of, like, common ones. It's really interesting and kind of like, debunks a few myths about different repellents. And the ones that end up performing the best are those with DEET. Now Picaridin is not in this study. I think maybe it just wasn't, you know, commonplace enough here to use it. But it is really interesting and I want to, there's one like Victoria's Secret perfume that has a really high repellency rate for.

Emily

Oh my God, that's great.

Mikaela

But then like after 4 hours, a lot of them kind of wear off. I think it deep woods deet. Yeah. And the lemon eucalyptus one is, I think the highest performing, like essential oil one.

Emily

Lemon eucalyptus is still my favorite. It just smells so good.

Mikaela

It's pretty effective, especially for being an essential oil, you know?

Emily

Yeah. When I find that a lot of the essential oils just, they'll last for 30 minutes at most, at least around me.

Mikaela

Right. Another one I think is really interesting and I wonder if there's more recent studies on it, is the skin patches. I see those advertised like on Facebook a lot for, for ticks and mosquitoes. The stickers you put on your kids, I don't think they are very effective. I don't think they have the research for it though, yet.

Rachel

Yeah, I got some wristbands for the kids and they literally broke and fell off within like an hour.

Emily

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, for one, really like getting the bug and sun where it's got the sunscreen. Yes. And on that note, if you are going to be outside, if you don't use a combined one, you do want to always put your sunscreen on first and then put the repellent on top of the sunscreen.

Rachel

That's a really helpful tip.

Emily

Yeah. And then anytime you feel the need to reapply your bug repellent, you probably want to potentially like get a paper towel and some water and wash both off. Reapply your sunscreen and then reapply your insect repellent.

Mikaela

Agreed. Most sunscreens only last about an hour and a half to 2 hours, tops. Anyways.

Emily

For some people, these basic steps is not enough to control mosquitoes. And they do have a lot of mosquitoes and they feel like they need to take a harsher step. And we know that chemical control can sometimes be needed for mosquitoes. If you must fog with pesticides, we'd recommend trying to avoid spraying any of your flowering plants. Always read and follow the directions on that list label as well.

Rachel

Okay. So the Maryland Department of Agriculture has a mosquito control program and we'll put that link in our show notes. On this page you can find out additional information about controlling mosquitoes on your property, information about the state spray program, what kind of controls are used the spraying schedule, and that's by county and mosquito biology. You can even get information about how to receive notices when unscheduled mosquito spraying occurs, including the hotline, Twitter ex handle and email alerts. There is a form for submitting an exemption of your property for participating in any adult mosquito spraying activity.

: Music: 

Mikaela

So I have kind of an interesting pick for this month. It's kind of an obscure shrub that not a lot of people know about, but it's more common than you might think. My pick for this month is blue huckleberry or dangleberry, and the scientific name is Gaylussacia frondosa. So this doesn't get nearly the same amount of attention as its closely related cousin, which would be the blueberry. Blue huckleberry is also in the heath family, just like blueberries are, and it means that it belongs in a group of plants that like and need very acidic soils. It's a deciduous shrub and it's native to the eastern United States, with a habitat along the atlantic coastal plain, along woodland edges, fields and meadows that prefer boggier or swampy areas. It has a very diminutive shape, so that means it grows low to the ground, reaching only about one to 3ft tall and growing in clusters from rhizomes. So it does have the potential for spreading, but not aggressively. In spring, it produces tiny white to pink, bell shaped flowers that will develop into dark blue blue blackberries starting in July, which is why it's my pick for this month.

Mikaela

The fruits hang in loose groups on something called a peduncle, hence the name dangleberry, because the berries kind of dangle off of the branches. And now these berries are the bomb. Arguably tastier than the native blueberry fruits. To me, very sweet but very tiny, so you need to pick a lot in order to make a pie or something to that degree. But honestly, they're so tasty, I would just pop them right, right in my mouth. The leaves are a whitish green, which helps distinguish it apart from other blueberry plants and another closely related plant, the black huckleberry. So this shrub may be difficult to find commercially, but they do have a very nice form and shape and I think they would do well in landscapes that have high acidity and especially in gardens with low fertility or in sites with low fertility. The flowers are excellent nectar for pollinators and it is the host plant, Henry's elfin butterfly larva. From late winter to spring, the fruits are also enjoyed by a number of songbirds, woodland animals and turkeys, so the low growing cover is favored by birds who also need thickets for cover and for habitat.

Mikaela

So if you have a boggy or acidic woodland space, this is a must have plant in the landscape. And that's my pick of the month.

: Music: 

Emily

Okay, are you guys ready for my bug of the month?

Rachel

Yeah.

Mikaela

Is it a mosquito?

Emily

It is not a mosquito. Oh, but I do have. I have a question for you guys, which is, what do you think the biggest insect in the world is a mosquito?

Mikaela

The giant waiter in New Zealand, possibly.

Emily

But in fact, it is a type of walking stick that is 20 inches from side to side. So this month's bug of the month is walking sticks, also known as stick insects, which is the order phantom media. And this is a group of insects that are known for their high value camouflage. So walking sticks, or stick insects, are typically wingless, although there are some species in the tropics that will have wings. But here in North America, all of our common species are wingless and they have a stick like appearance. So they're going to be long and slender with thin thread like antennas. And they typically are found in green or brown. And then depending on the species here in North America, they can be anywhere from one to twelve inches long.

Mikaela

That's amazing.

Emily

With the females typically being larger than the males, they escape predators or avoid predators by blending in with that plant material. So as their name suggests, look like sticks. There are some insects within this order, which would be the leaf insects, which are the ones that tend to look more like leaves, but those tend to be more tropical species. So we're not typically going to find those up here in the mid Atlantic. In addition to looking like a stick, they have this way where they walk in sort of a jerky method so that it looks like a twig moving with the wind. So they move very slowly and kind of in this jerking type motion.

Mikaela

No, I love walking sticks. So do I. I always forget about them, just like their name implies.

Emily

I feel like they're easy to forget about, but when you see one, you're like, oh, my God, it's a walking stick.

Mikaela

They're very exciting.

Emily

Yeah, they're super cool to find. So they are found worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica, and there are more than 3000 species. They tend to be commonly more found in the temperate and tropical regions, with higher numbers being found down in the tropics. So here in the mid Atlantic, we normally find them in woodland areas, hiding on trees in plain sight. And there are two common species that you would find in Maryland. So one is the northern walking stick, and the other one is called the batchley walking stick. These guys are herbaceous and they have chewing mouthparts, so their damage tends to be skeletonization, though they are going to create holes through the tissue, but they're not necessarily going to cross those thick, big veins, so they're going to stick to those newer leaves with that fresh young tissue. Some trees that you're likely going to find them on here are going to be things like the american hazel, the black cherry, white oak, and to a lesser extent, black locusts. They are the favorite food of many animals, particularly bats. For some species, being camouflaged and pretending to be a stick is not enough.

Emily

So some species will actually release a foul smelling odor or chemical to deter predators as well. Others will drop off a leg when a predator grabs it or attacks, and others will do what we call cataspree, which is feigning death. So in the event a predator comes by and tries to grab them and doesn't, they will just feign death and fall to the ground as though they were a twig being snapped off. These guys engage in incomplete metamorphosis, so they're going to have an egg that then hatches into a nymph. The nymph will have several nymphal instars that gradually will change into an adult over time. So typically, the ones in our areas are going to have one generation per year. So some females will lay their eggs in places that are hidden or hard to get into, while others females will lay her egg up in the top of the tree and she will just let her eggs dry, like, she just drops them down into the leaf litter. She doesn't climb down and lay them anywhere. She just, like, lets her eggs drop and hopes for the best mother of the year award.

Emily

I know, not in this case, but that's okay.

Mikaela

That's right.

Emily

They will overwinter in that leaf litter. So this is another great reason to leave those leaves in the fall. The nymphs will hatch in the spring and they will crawl up in a tree or a shrub and start feeding and growing and just pretending to be cool sticks. We do have a few species that do do parthenogenesis, meaning that the female can produce unfertilized eggs that will hatch into new females without having males. Others will engage in sexual reproduction. They'll typically reach maturity within three months, and some will live to one to two years. So there are some issues with conservation of walking sticks, because a lot of times, while none of them are endangered, some of them are at risk due to mainly things like habitat destruction, pesticide use and surprisingly in tropical areas, collection for pet trade. These have become a popular insect pet to keep and a lot of times people are catching them out in the wild and then boxing them up and shipping them to other countries or other areas for them. So if you are interested in owning these a pet, we encourage you to look for someone who breeds them locally and purchasing them from there instead of purchasing wild caught ones.

Emily

There's a few benefits from doing this, which is one you're not necessarily pulling from the wild population. But you can also age how old that walking stick is and have a better grasp for how long you'll be able to retain it as a pet versus if you buy an adult off of someone who's caught an in the wild, you don't know how old it is. You may have it for two weeks or two months and you don't know. But a person who has bred it and hatched it from an egg, they could say like oh yeah, this one hatched out a month ago. So you would know that you probably could keep it as a pet for, you know, nine more months or ten more months or something like that. So that is my bug of the month.

Mikaela

That's an awesome, such a solid one.

Rachel

Yeah, I know. Good fight.

Emily

I wanted a good one. I felt like we needed to balance out mosquitoes with something really cool.

Mikaela

No, you're right. I just assumed you were gonna do a mosquito of some kind. But I appreciate that you did walking.

Rachel

Sticks instead and you kept it secret so we didn't know ahead of time. So like, I appreciate exactly how the.

Mikaela

Surprise.

Rachel

Alright everybody, it's time for your tip of the month. July is notoriously hot and dry because hey, summer is officially here. It can do significant damage on our plants and gardens. And here are some tips to get you along. Droughts can lead to temporary or permanent plant damage symptoms and consequences of drought. Implants may include wilting leaf scorch, reduced vegetable and fruit harvest, premature fall color, and even early defoliation. Drought stress plants are more susceptible to pests and diseases. For gardeners, the first symptoms of water stress in plants is going to be wilting and additional symptoms can be upward curling or rolling of the leaf, yellowing and brown leaves particularly along the leaf margins and tips, undersized and off flavored fruits or vegetables, undersized leaves and limited shoot growth, small flowers and immature fruit drop interior needle and leaf drop on conifers or evergreens and chlorosis symptoms on foliage. This is yellowing between the leave veins, secondary and more severe impacts of drought stress may include increased damage by insects, think borers or other arthropods like spider mites, and increased susceptibility to certain plant diseases. Blossom end rot of tomatoes and pepper squash melons are also a secondary stress.

Rachel

Diminished winter hardiness, even root death are all secondary severe impacts of drought stress. So what can we do to combat this? Well, the first and foremost is watering. Wet the soil around the base of the plant overhead. Watering may encourage plant diseases, but can also help cool plants and provide moisture for beneficial insects and spiders. During hot, dry weather, allow foliage to dry thoroughly. If you don't have your soaker hoses out right now, you probably should and they allow slow flow around the root base of your plants. We also have a really great page on our home and garden information center website and it's watering trees and shrubs. We'll link it in our show notes. Chrysanthemums and asters should be cut halfway back by mid July to encourage fall blooming. If not trimmed, they will bloom later this month and not in the fall, and they can also get really, really leggy in the vegetable garden. Tomato hornworms are active in July. If you want to do a really cool thing, get yourself a black light and go caterpillar hunting at night in your garden. They light up like a light bulb and even their eggs will glow, which is really a fun experiment to find them.

Rachel

Squash vine borer larvae are feeding on the inside of your squash and pumpkin stems right now. They're gorgeous themselves, just having a great day. So if the leaves are looking wilted or you see holes in the lower stems with sawdust or droppings around the hole in the stem, you can slit that stem up with a razor blade and remove the larva and then mound the slit with soil to kind of protect that injured stem. Orlando squash bugs are also really, really active right now, and their squash bug eggs are little tiny copper eggs and they're often found on the underside of squash leaves. They like to be on that, the vein and on the stem, and they hatch in about ten days and the nymphs mature in about four to six weeks. Both adults and nymphs will hide under the leaves and when they are disturbed, they scatter. They're really freaky to see in the garden. Besides squash vine borers, I cannot stand squash bugs. Those two are my arch nemesis in the vegetable garden. If you are like me and you're thinking about your fall garden already, now's the time to start seeds for our cold weather crops like broccoli and cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.

Rachel

So for our non veggie gardeners, you're going to see Japanese beetles feeding heavily. Brush the beetles into a bucket of soapy water that you hold underneath the foliage or the branches. You can use Japanese beetle traps, but you want to put them near your neighbor because studies show that the traps can attract more beetles to your landscape, resulting in more damage than you actually want. Mulch your landscape now, if you haven't done so already. Mulch helps keep the weeds down and conserves soil moisture. Mulch should only be about one to two inches deep, and you keep it away from the tree trunks and the shrub trunks. All right, so we're not making a mulch volcano. We're making a mulch doughnut. Bagworm caterpillars are very active. Look for bags crawling around evergreen trees and shrubs, and be prepared to spray infested trees with microbial insecticide. This is be by mid-July. Mature bagworms are not controlled with BT. They are best collected by hand and destroyed or sprayed with insecticides containing spinosad. And that's all I have this month. Listener.

Mikaela

We love you, Rachel, because you remind us of all the things we need to remind ourselves to do in the summer.

Emily

I know I for one, still have not mulched, but I have the mulch sitting in the back of my truck.

Mikaela

So that is this weekend's goal. That's like 50% of the work. Yeah.

:Up beat Music: 

Well, that's all we have for this episode, listener. We hope you enjoyed it, and we'll tune in next month for more gardening tips. If you have any garden-related questions, please email us at umegardenpodcast@gmail. Com, or look us up on Facebook at Garden Time Podcast. That's Garden, T-H-Y-M-E. For more information about the University of Maryland extension and these topics, please check out University of Maryland extension, Home and Garden Information Center website at go. Umd. Com. Edu/hgic. Thanks for listening, and have fun getting down and dirty in your garden.

Every one-  Goodbye.

Rachel

The Garden Time podcast is a monthly podcast brought to you by the University of Maryland extension, Mikaela Boli, Senior Agent Associate for Talbot County, Rachel Rhoads, Senior Agent Associate for Queens County, and Emily Zobel, Senior Agent Associate for Dorchester

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