ants feeding at liquid bait As warm weather arrives in the spring higher temperatures may activate ant nests both inside and outside your home. You will see increased ant activity as nests resume nest-building and production of young worker ants. All this activity requires food so ants will be out foraging for new food sources. Control of the common household nuisance ants (not carpenter ants) is best done with baits, rather than insecticide sprays which only kill the ants the spray contacts. And the simplest and least expensive is a drop of sugary liquid food that has been combined with boric acid (borate). During spring ants are most attracted to sugary foods (carbohydrate) because of the high energy demand of nest building. If a scout worker finds a bit of sugary food she (all worker ants are female) will recruit her nestmates to the food source (see photo above). bait station on wax paper Borate, a salt of boric acid, is toxic to insects when consumed. So a simple bait mad
notches on rhody leaves Many landscape plants will show leaf notching as new leaves start to grow in spring and early summer. Rhododendron is particularly susceptible but a number of other popular landscape and garden plants may show the same type of damage. Often you will not find any obvious cause or culprit. The cause and culprit in this case are adult root weevils (snout beetles). There are many species of root weevil (Curculionidae) but all exhibit the same general life cycle. Worm-like larvae feed on plant roots for most of the year, adult beetles (weevils) emerge from the soil in spring or summer, feed (notch) on leaves of the host plant, lay eggs then die. The real damage therefore is to the root system of affected plants but it is the leaf notching that catches the attention of gardeners. black vine weevil adult The best way to protect your landscape and garden plants from root weevil damage is to control adult weevils in the spring and early summer before t