Spider Plants & Other Invasives
Invasive Spider Plant Deceptively Charming I remember the first time I saw a spider plant. It was hanging in a basket from the ceiling of a sun-splashed living room. I examined it with mouth agape, a...
Category Archives: Pests
My Oh My(oporum)!
I was hoping you could solve a problem with my Myoporum laetum. I have 13 Myoporum trees as a 20-foot tall hedge. Two years ago, three of the plants started to get a strange leaf curl. The curl is ve...
Critters Make Salad from Vegetable Garden
For people with vegetable plots or fruit trees, the squirrel and the opossum are two garden visitors likely to evoke mixed emotions. These creatures are cute and fun to watch as they go through their...
Leafminers
I have five citrus trees in my yard. One of the trees is a Meyer lemon about 25 years old and has been a good producer. I planted the other four trees this year: one Meyer lemon, one Valencia orange,...
Lawn Mushrooms
I am having problems with mushrooms coming up in my north-facing back lawn. There are two kinds: the “toadstool” type and a weird, flat-topped, yellow-tinted, irregular-shaped type. As I ...
Leaf Miners & Rain Sensors
LARVAE OF LEAFMINER MOTHS ATTACK CITRUS: From Chatsworth to Burbank, I have been receiving reports of curled citrus leaves accompanied by squiggly trails in the foliage. The party responsible for thi...
Bougainvillea Loopers & Spinosad
My bougainvilleas are being nibbled on by some little critter. It goes after the tender part of the leaf, so the plant is covered by half leaves. I’ve never been able to see any pests. I have n...
Are there ants in your plants?
Are there ants in your plants? Although ants do not, by themselves, eat or disfigure plants in any way, they create problems through their sap-sucking insect agents. In hot, dry weather, ants come ou...
Barn Owls for Gopher Control
There are hills and canyons in and around Los Angeles where gophers are such an enormous problem that gardening is virtually impossible. In parts of Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley, the only wa...
Growing Beneficial Insects
There are few people like Everett “Deke” Dietrick. If there were more like him, insect pests would cease to be a problem on Earth. It would be a gross understatement to categorize Dietric...
