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I hope you had a chance to slow down and enjoy life a bit over the holiday. Hopefully you got to get out and experience your own landscape because there’s so much going on right in your own backyard.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been seeing a lot of swallow tail butterflies this summer! They seem to be everywhere. I’m wondering if the weather has something to do with it, or maybe it’s that people are using pesticides a bit more wisely. Maybe it’s because gardeners are planting more butterfly friendly gardens.

If you’re wondering what I mean by “butterfly friendly” gardens let me quickly explain.

Butterfly friendly gardens have blocks of flowers, not just a flower here and there. Flowers with flat centers provide a great landing pad for the butterflies and are butterfly magnets.

They also like a variety of flowers with different heights growing in a sunny location. And they enjoy visiting a mud puddle. And of course they love butterfly bushes (Buddleia).

They also need some protection from the wind. I recently read an article telling people not to spray their milkweed because monarch butterflies need them to produce their young. While this is true, we don’t really have monarch butterflies in the Montrose area. They tend to stick to the Front Range. However, we do have viceroy butterflies, which look very similar, but don’t require milkweed to reproduce so don’t worry about keeping milkweed for the Monarchs.

Earwigs have also been making an appearance in local gardens. While a few people consider earwigs beneficial because they often eat small destructive insects, I think most people see them as pest because they will chew on flowers and young vegetables in the garden.

They prefer cool, moist, dark places to hide during the day. I often find them nestled in a marigold flower or hiding under loose bark of a tree. You may even be startled to discover them under a seldom moved flowerpot. You can use sprays, such as permethrin, or other sprays labeled for earwigs, but you can also trap them. Poke a hole in the lid of an old butter tub just big enough for an earwig to crawl through. Then put several tablespoons of soy sauce and just enough oil to cover the bottom creating a little pool. Put the lid on the container and bury it near the plants that the bugs have been seen on. This will attract the earwigs and they’ll crawl into the tub and be trapped or drown. Dump and refill the tub as needed.

You could also roll up a slightly dampened newspaper, or a cut up sections of an old garden hose, and place it near the base of your plants around sunset. The earwigs will crawl inside of the trap. Empty the trapped earwigs into a bucket of water every morning or just toss them into a sealed plastic bag and place it in the trash.

If you have peach trees in your landscape and want to protect them from peach tree borer attacks, this is the time to apply a preventive spray. You’ll actually be spraying to protect the tree from the peach tree borer larvae. They will damage the tree when the immature larvae chew beneath the bark of the lower trunk and the larger roots at the base of the tree. Insecticide sprays applied to the lower trunk and base of the tree will prevent attacks. You don’t need to go crazy and spray the entire tree. Permethrin (Astro, Hi-Yield 38, etc.) or Carbaryl (Sevin) should do the job.

I usually spray apples and pears at the same time that I treat for peach tree borers.

Codling moths will be laying their eggs in apples and even pears within the next few weeks. The larvae of the codling moth are actually the cream-colored caterpillars that tunnel into the apples and pears, and produce “wormy” apples. C

arbaryl, Spinosad (organic) or Acetamiprid which can be found in Ortho Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer are all labeled for control of codling moth. Just be sure to read the entire label before applying any product! Codling moths will lay eggs through September so you may want to apply one final spray in August if they have been a problem on your apples.

A lot of people are experiencing problems with their lawn so here are a couple of tips that might help you out.

The first thing to do is check the irrigation. You can do this by setting shallow cans, like tuna fish cans, throughout the lawn. Run the irrigation as usual and then compare the amount of water in each can. You may be surprised that one can may have a lot of water in it while a can set in a problem area of the lawn has little to no water in the can. Sometimes the heads get clogged or run over by a lawn mower and require some maintenance. Sometimes the heads don’t pop up as far out of the turf as they once did and you may need to dig up the head, put a little soil under it, and plant it back where it was.

If you can grab the turf with both hands and it lifts up like a piece of carpet it most likely has grubs that chewed off the roots. You could also put a few drops of liquid dish soap in a bucket of water and pour it over the area where you suspect grubs. This should bring them to the surface if you have them. Sometimes you can pick the grubs up and dispose of them. However, if you find more than four or five per square foot, you should treat the infested area with a product labeled for grub control.

Water issues are usually the cause of most lawn problems. Remember, deep infrequent watering is the key to a healthy lawn. About a half hour of watering two to three times a week is recommended for most bluegrass lawns.

Your garlic may be about ready to pull. If the tops are turning brown or beginning to fall over, it’s time to pull them. They should be dried in a shady area or the tops can be braided and hung to dry. This will prevent them from rotting. If you have onions that are going to seed, you might want to pull them and eat them first because they won’t store well.

I know we just celebrated Independence Day but it’s already time to start thinking about fair time.

Flowers and vegetables will be judged July 26.

I think it’s a lot of fun to enter something in the fair and this year I’ll be the superintendent of flowers and vegetables so I strongly encourage you to enter. Just drop by the CSU Extension office and ask for a fair book which should answer most questions that you might have.

There will be categories for several different garden annuals, arrangements, and even houseplants and vegetables. If you have a flower or plant that you think is really cool or downright unusual or beautiful you really should think about entering it.

There are so many great insects in the gardens right now, so while you’re out enjoying the garden be sure to look for them. Snakeflies (I love to watch them), lady beetles, lacewings, ground beetles, and crickets are just a few. If you find an insect that you’re concerned about, identify it before killing it. Often times you can take a picture of it and identify it online. If you have several of the same species you can bring a sample to the CSU Extension office or take your photo to the office.

I think every once in a while we just need to slow down and take a close look at what’s in the garden. It may surprise you. Insect watching can quickly become a hobby! So enjoy!

Linda Corwine McIntosh is a licensed commercial pesticide applicator, ISA-certified arborist and advanced master gardener.

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