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Insects

Western Gardens HARD GOODS

April 11, 2020 by Wendy Pettit

Many are asking for better photos of what we have in HARDGOODS – chemicals, organics, tools, etc.  Here are some of our most requested items and video walk-throughs of our aisles at the Salt Lake Store.  Our West Valley store has the same!  Give us a call with your order!  We will even load it in your vehicle for you!  Thanks for supporting Utah small business!

FUNGICIDES & HERBICIDES

Video – FUNGICIDES – CLICK HERE

Video – HERBICIDES – CLICK HERE (coming soon)

F-Stop fungicide in Utah major lawn diseases

F-Stop is a great one that solves most lawn diseases.

Wide variety of fungicides in liquid, powder, concentrate, and more.

Wide variety of fungicides in liquid, powder, concentrate, and more. Follow label instructions

 

INSECTICIDES, PEST CONTROLS, & ORGANICS

Video – INSECTICIDES, PEST CONTROLS, ORGANICS – CLICK HERE

Video – How to use the TREE & SHRUB SYSTEMIC INSECT DRENCH – CLICK HERE

Systemic Insect drench to apply early utah spring for non-fruit bearing trees

Apply early to mid April in Utah. Drench non-fruit bearing trees and shrubs. Follow directions on label. It works!

Neem Oil organic pest control

Organic insect controller

Diatomaceous Earth Organic pest control

Organic pest control for those critters with soft bodies and joints

Weed Free Zone - kills broadleaf weeds in lawn

Proven to work in early spring (cool weather). Kills weeds in lawn – spurge, clover, and more. Do NOT spray on any broad leaf plant you want to stay alive. Made only for weeds in lawn application. Follow label instructions!

ANIMAL REPELLENTS

Video – ANIMAL REPELLENTS – CLICK HERE

 

FERTILIZER PRODUCTS

Video – Fertilizers – Specialized, Organics, Tree Stakes and more –  CLICK HERE 

Video – Fertilizer Favorite – Gardener’s Special –  CLICK HERE

Video – Fertilizer WGC General use & SOIL AMENDMENTS – CLICK HERE

Video – LAWN CARE – Our 4-STEP PROGRAM FERTILIZER – CLICK HERE

Video – LAWN CARE – ORGANIC Fertilizers – CLICK HERE

Gardeners special fertilizer with micro-nutrients

Our manager’s favorite all-purpose fertilizer with micro-nutrients.

BIRD SUPPLIES

Video – BIRD SUPPLIES – CLICK HERE

 

CONTAINERS – Pots and more (inside store – not including Ceramic Pots outside)

Video – CLAY POTS (small/medium), SEED TRAYS, LABELS – CLICK HERE

Video – PLASTIC POTS, CASTORS for moving heavy pots – CLICK HERE

Video – HANGING baskets, WINDOW boxes, Liners, etc. – CLICK HERE

 

LAWN CARE / GRASS SEED & STARTING A NEW LAWN

Video – GRASS SEED / STARTING A NEW LAWN OR OVERSEEDING – CLICK HERE

Video – Our Popular 4-STEP PROGRAM for Lawns all season long – CLICK HERE

Video – ORGANIC Fertilizer for LAWN CARE – CLICK HERE

pdf –  INSTRUCTIONS  – How to Plant a New Lawn from Seed

Array of sun and shade grass seed. April is a perfect time to plant lawn from seed.

Array of sun and/or shade loving grass seed. April is a perfect time to plant lawn from seed.

More shade and sun loving grass seed options

More shade and sun loving grass seed options

bare spot repair for lawns and grass

Need to just fix a bare spot in your lawn? Here is an easy product to work with!

TOOLS – including GLOVES etc.

Video – TOOLS – CLICK HERE (COMING SOON)

Photos of Favorite Tools – CLICK HERE

2 in 1 bench/kneeler.

Another best seller! 2 in 1 bench/kneeler.

Best Wolf Garden hand pruners

Wolf Garden is a hand pruner that we highly recommend. We gave our mother her very own pair to hide so that others didn’t walk off with hers!

PLANT SUPPORTS

Video – PLANT SUPPORTS – CLICK HERE

POTTING SOILS & ORGANICS, RAISED BEDS, PEAT MOSS – LARGE SIZES

Video – POTTING SOILS, RAISED BEDS, PEAT MOSS – CLICK HERE

Bumper Crop ORGANIC potting soil

This is a fantastic organic product for planting up your new pots.

raised bed organic soil for growbox

Did you build a new growbox or raised bed? This is the soil you want.

SPECIALIZED POTTING SOILS

Video – SPECIALIZED POTTING SOILS – CLICK HERE

Potting soil specialized

A wide variety of specialized soils for specialized plants in pots.

 

SOIL AMENDMENTS

Video – SOIL AMENDMENTS – CLICK HERE

Video about our BEST – BUMPER CROP SOIL BUILDER – #1 Product for Utah soils  – CLICK HERE

Bumper Crop ORGANIC SOIL BUILDER FOR UTAH GARDEN SOILS

This is our most favorite and most popular product we sell. Find great success with Bumper Crop Soil Builder.

 

KIDS in the Garden

Video – FAIRY GARDENS – figurines, houses, stones, moss, and more.

We also have an array of children’s tools and toys to help them be part of your garden.

Garden kid starter kit for utah children

Get your kids involved with their own garden tools. Here is a perfect starter kit. Their little hands can actually help a lot.

children tools for garden work

Variety of children tools to teach them the miracle of a garden.

children yard fun with kites

Activities for in the yard or garden

 

For more instore products – CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE

Filed Under: Container Gardening, Gardening, How To, Insects, Kids in the Garden, Lawn Care, Products, Seeds, Tips & How To's, Utah Gardening, Yard Care Tagged With: animal repellent, bird supply, fertilizers, fungicides, garden containers, garden pest, garden products, garden tools, grass seed, grow box, herbicides, insecticides, kid friendly, kid garden tools, Lawn Care, organic, peat moss, pest control, raised beds, soil amendments

Pest Control – the Annoying Box Elder Bug

April 19, 2018 by Western Gardens

Boxelder bug on green leaf. CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)]

By Tom Murphy VII on WikimediaCommons

Have you already found a boxelder bug inside your house this spring?  They are often the first bug of spring, at least in my yard. Boxelder bugs (Leptocoris species) are very common over most of the United States. They are considered more of a nuisance than a destroyer.  

Boxelder bugs are most numerous in areas where boxelder, silver maple, ash, and fruit trees grow.  Their main source of food is from sucking the juice from the boxelder tree, which does not damage the tree. In the early spring, the female bugs lay their eggs on the bark of these trees.  The new little hatchlings are called nymphs and are about ¼ inch long and have bright red wingless bodies with black legs. Nymphs congregate in mass, so it’s easy to spot them on the trunk of a tree, building foundation, or wherever. The young feed on tender twigs, foliage, pollen, and seeds through the spring and summer. Controlling the nymphs is easier than controlling the adults so watch this spring to get a jump on them.     

Boxelder adult and nymphs

Boxelder bug Nymphs & Adults – Photo by Viking6 at Wikipedia, CC by 3.0

The Boxelder bug adults grow to be about ½ inch long.  They are red or black with reddish lines on their wings.  In the fall, especially on bright sunny days, the bugs migrate to locations to hibernate through the winter.  In the spring, they emerge to look for host trees so they can eat and lay their eggs, completing the cycle.  

boxelder bug adult on flower

Photo by Bruce Marlin on WikimediaCommons

 

How to Control Boxelder Bug and/or Prevent their Annoyance

  1. For home invasion prevention, keep sealed doors, windows, foundation cracks, around plumbing, gas, and electrical conduits.  Weather strip around doors and windows plus screen off attic vents and repair broken windows and screens. Expanding-foam sealants may be helpful too.  
sealed window and door keeps bugs out

Photo by Pixxl Teufel on Pixabay

  1. Vacuum the bugs with a “shop” type vacuum, empty the vacuum and seal and dispose of the collected bugs, as they can live through the vacuuming process and will continue to creep around otherwise.
vacuum up boxelder bugs

Photo by Jarmoluk on Pixabay

  1. Avoid smashing the bugs. They don’t feed on fabric or furniture, but when crushed, they do stain household items.  They also release a strong, unpleasant odor.
shoes to squish boxelder bug

Photo by Took-a-Pic on Pixabay

  1. Boxelder bugs, especially the nymphs, are easily drowned.  When watering your plants with a garden hose, it’s also a good time to water-down congregations of bugs on buildings.  
  2. Reduce bug populations by removal of female boxelder trees. Realize that even if you don’t have a boxelder tree on your property, chances are great that there is a Boxelder tree nearby.

Boxelder trees are often called “trash” trees. They may seem pretty and provide shade, but there are many other better choices for shade.

Boxelder tree leaves

  1. Boxelder bugs do not have many natural enemies.  No major insects or birds like to eat them, probably because they can emit an offensive odor, which probably makes them taste bad too.  Spiders could be considered a minor predator.  
  2. Chemical control of boxelder bugs is difficult because these bugs are tolerant of most insecticides.  There are some residual insecticides that can be sprayed around the outside of the building.   Oil based sprays can stain building surfaces, so try to control on the host plants, not the building.  Be sure to check with your local independent garden center, like Western Gardens, to know the latest and best product recommended.   Always follow current label instructions of any pesticide used, as label changes occur and must control application procedures. This or any other instruction must be adjusted/disregarded so application conforms to the current pesticide container label.
  3. For an organic alternative to using synthetic insecticides.  Mix about ½ cup laundry detergent with one gallon of water.  Use a squirt bottle to spray the insects. There is no residual value so you must spray thoroughly and often.  
Organic solution of spray bottle and detergent to kill boxelder bugs

Organic Solution

Resources:  Thanks to Ortho Publications, Utah State Extension, Chuck Solomon, and G. Rex Buys of Western Garden Centers

ways to control boxelder bug

Filed Under: Gardening, Insects, Tips & How To's, Utah Gardening

How a Backyard Garden Can Help Save Our Important Bees

March 28, 2018 by Wendy Pettit

Author: Maria Cannon (HobbyJr.org)

Bee on pink flower

Photo by: Agzam on Pixabay CCO

Since 2010, the United States has suffered a loss of 40 percent of local honeybees. Native bee species are dying off too, with many of them categorized as either endangered or significantly declining. Our food and economy, as well as the entire ecosystem, depend on bees to survive. Our survival depends on their survival. By creating a bee-friendly garden, you can do your part to help save our important bees.

Why Bees Are So Important

According to Greenpeace, “Since the late 1990s, beekeepers around the world have observed the mysterious and sudden disappearance of bees and reported unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies.” Bees are famous for making honey, but their most important role is the pollination of crops. A third of the food that we eat depends on pollinating insects, including zucchini, apricots, almonds, coriander, canola oil, and more.

Photo by: MyriamsFotos on Pixabay CCO

A world without pollinators would not only be devastating for food production, but it would also have a huge economic impact. The worldwide economic value of bees’ pollination work has been estimated at roughly $306.4 billion annually.  Obviously, they are important bees. In the United States, pollinators contribute more than $24 billion dollars to the economy, of which honeybees contribute more than $15 billion and native pollinators contribute $9 billion.

However, it’s not just the economy and our food that we should focus on. All pollinating insects play an essential role in ecosystems. Native bees may not pollinate as much of our crops, but they do pollinate wild plants, which are important to the larger ecosystem, creating food and habitats for other animals and insects. In essence, all bee populations are declining, and it’s important to help save them all.

Making Your Garden Bee-Friendly

Bees need nectar and pollen as food sources, so opt for flowers that provide both, such as goldenrod, asters, and sunflowers. You can also plant flowering vegetables and fruits. Bees need to eat until they retreat for the winter, so choose plants that bloom through multiple seasons or a variety of plants that will bloom at different times throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Aim to have at least ten bee plants in a grouping instead of spreading them out across the garden. Because bees also need water, you should add a pond, fountain, or other fresh water source.

While honeybees live in hives, native bees live in the ground. Provide a space in your garden for native bees to make their home by leaving an un-mulched space in your garden. A pile of undisturbed sand or wood will work too. Do not use pesticides and herbicides. Instead, introduce good bugs to provide natural protection against pests and weed your garden by hand.

If you live in an apartment or have limited space, you can easily grow pollinator plants in containers. Some pollinator plants that do well in containers include stinging nettles, asters, bee balm, purple coneflowers, and yarrow. You can incorporate more than one plant into a container to save space. Allow a tall plant, a rounded/full plant, and a trailing plant to share one container.  All sizes of flowering plants help our important bees.  Read our post on 8-tips for planting spring flower pots.

Photo by: Castlegaurd on Pixabay CCO

Starting Your Garden

When starting your garden, take the time to plan ahead. First, determine what you want to grow in your garden. There are many plants that attract pollinators, so choose the ones you like the best. As far as size, it’s best to start small and work your way toward a larger garden. When choosing the location of your garden, consider the position of the sun in your yard throughout the day and the quality of the soil.

Gardening doesn’t just help the bees. When you grow a garden, you can reap many of the health benefits it provides, including its calming effect. Gardening’s ability to calm the mind stems from it allowing you to center yourself, connect with nature, and take pride in creating something. It’s also a great form of exercise and has been proven to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and diabetes.

The rapid loss of bee populations is frightening. Not only will our food supply and economy take a big hit, but also the Earth’s entire ecosystem could be devastated. By planting a garden that’s full of pollinator plants that bloom in different seasons, you’re taking a big step in helping revamp the bee populations. Even if you simply provide a home for bees to nest, you can help do your part in saving the bees.

Filed Under: Gardening, Insects, Utah Gardening Tagged With: attracting bees, backyard garden, bee-friendly garden, bees, beneficial insects, gardens and bees, honey bee, Important bees, pollinating insects, pollination, save bees

Harmful Garden Insects: Organic Management

July 18, 2017 by Marjorie Carter

 Welcome, Friends! Glad you’re here for some tips to organically manage those pesky harmful garden insects so you’ll have produce left to harvest!

Harmful garden insects can be managed organic methods

All yards and allotments will have harmful garden insects every year; it’s part of nature.  These insects need to eat in order to feed the beneficial insects.  Eliminating ALL the harmful insects from your garden would be time, labor, and resource intensive. You also run the risk of depleting the food source for beneficial insects and other animals that feed on the harmful critters.

Wise Goal – An important and wise goal is to control the harmful garden insects enough to reduce the damage to your garden to a manageable level.  Meaning that by harvest time, there is something left for you to eat.  Losing one or two tomatoes is manageable and probably hardly noticed, but an entire decimated crop means there’s a problem to address. 

aphids are harmful garden insects that can be easily controlled

Aphids – One year we had aphids on our herbs which was easily treated by spraying the affected plants with neem oil, a wonderful organic product found at Western Gardens.  This significantly reduced the number of bugs.  They were further kept at bay by some helpful ladybugs, also found at your garden shop. 

Neem Oil is safe organic product. Read label

We were careful to thoroughly wash our herbs before eating them to remove any remaining aphids. Washing anything you harvest before eating it is always a good idea anyway.

Harmful garden insects include the Leaf Miner

Leaf Miner – Last year, our challenge was leaf miner larvae on our Swiss chard.  In this case, we simply discarded any leaves that had been extensively chewed.  Otherwise, we snipped off the parts that didn’t look as appetizing, like anything that had a visible egg attached to it (usually on the underside of the leaves), washed everything, and then enjoyed our tasty green salad.

tracks of leaf miner on pepper plant leaves

This year, now that we know to look for the leaf miner eggs on the leaves, we were more attentive with our starts for our garden and inspected them daily, looking for them or other harmful garden insects.  We found eggs on our pepper plants and did our best to remove them when the plants were small.  We used a piece of duct tape wrapped around a finger to remove the eggs.

duct tape wrapped around one finger helps lift off insect eggs from plants

We found that using a gentle fingernail was still too rough for the tender young leaves, so gently touching the tiny eggs with the sticky duct tape easily lifted them off.  

Eggs of the leaf miner on pepper plants

Once the plants were more mature and could withstand a little insect activity, we were less vigilant at egg removal, but still mindful of looking for eggs once in a while.  Read more on homemade remedies for treating leaf miners by clicking here.

harmful garden insects also include squash bugs

Squash Bug – This year, we planted pumpkins for the first time.  We had heard of the dreaded squash bug and had been looking for them but hadn’t seen any damage to the plants.  Then, just last week (late June), one of our pumpkin plants was nearly devoured overnight by something.

Squash bug eggs are easy to spot and remove.

We assumed it was the infamous squash bug.  This assumption was reinforced when, upon closer inspection of the plant, we found a mating pair of squash bugs with a third one waiting on the side-line and eggs attached to the underside of the remaining leaves and the stem. We posted photos of the damage to a Facebook gardening group and learned of some other likely culprits.  That night my husband went out with a headlamp and a bottle of neem oil to investigate.

earwigs are harmful but also beneficial

Earwigs – Someone suggested the damage looked like the work of earwigs.  My husband found several earwigs eating on the plant and a swarm of them hiding in a nearby crevasse. Earwigs are a complicated insect in the garden.  They are not only harmful, but also beneficial.  They aid in breaking down organic matter (composting) and they also eat aphids and other harmful insects. However, when there are too many of them around a young susceptible plant, they can be very destructive.  We could also see evidence of earwigs damage on a few leaves of nearby tomato plants.  This minimal damage doesn’t pose a risk to a plant that has hundreds of leaves to perform.  In comparison, the pumpkin plant had only a dozen leaves to start with and most of those were very damaged. 

earwigs eating pumpkin plant leaves

My husband sprayed neem oil on the earwigs on the plant, in the swarm nearby, and even in their nest. It’s still uncertain whether the plant will survive though it already shows signs of new growth. We monitor it closely to prevent another insect attack that would probably kill it.

Another organic alternative that works to kill earwigs is diatomaceous earth, which also now offers a nice dispensing bottle which helps cut down on waste and mess.  Check it out at Western Gardens.

diatomaceous earth is a natural organic product to control crawling insects in the garden.

As for the squash bugs, not the main culprits to the pumpkin plant, they were probably snacking on it also.  We’re still removing eggs as we find them (using the duct tape trick mentioned above) and killing any adults.  Their numbers can quickly get out of hand. Again, diatomaceous earth works well to control squash bugs.

Beneficial vs Harmful Insects – Lady bugs, praying mantis, and birds are a few examples of creatures that feed on the harmful garden insects; hence, we like to see these around around the yard.  When considering how to handle any harmful garden insects, the first reaction should generally not be total annihilation.  Rather, try to reduce their numbers and also allow the beneficial insects and animals to do their part until the plant is mature enough to withstand the damage. 

Good luck and happy hunting!

CLICK HERE to read about beneficial insects you want in your garden.

10 beneficial insects you want in your garden! If you spot these in your yard, you're in good shape!

Filed Under: Flowers, Gardening, How To, Insects, Tips & How To's, Utah Gardening, Vegetables, Veggie Gardening, Yard Care Tagged With: Gardening, harmful garden insects, harmful insects, How To, organic management, organic pest controls, Utah gardening, Western Gardens

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