by Stephanie Suesan Smith | Feb 28, 2011 | Farm safety
Coiled rattlesnake We as gardeners are more at risk for bites and stings from venomous critters than most folks. We move leaf litter that might hide a copperhead snake, reach in the shadows where a black widow spider might lurk and are around bees and wasps a lot....
by Stephanie Suesan Smith | Feb 23, 2011 | entomology
Ladybug larva One of the interesting things about practicing integrated pest management (IPM) is that you get to learn about the relationships between the insects that you consider pests and the insects that eat them. The lady beetle, or ladybug, is one of the good...
by Stephanie Suesan Smith | Feb 21, 2011 | Farm safety
Fertilizer is safe when used properly. If used improperly, however, it can have serious negative effects upon you, your plants, and the environment. Some of these effects are quite unintentional. I remember when they banned phosphorus in detergents because of algae...
by Stephanie Suesan Smith | Feb 19, 2011 | gardening101
It is time to fertilize lawns and gardens in North East Texas. Hopefully, you had a soil test done in December or January. These results will contain detailed recommendations for what fertilizer to use and how to apply it. If you don’t have a recent soil...
by Stephanie Suesan Smith | Feb 17, 2011 | entomology
Scale insects photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/ When I was a teenager, my parents bought a peach orchard. I heard my Dad talk about spraying the trees with dormant oil and thought that was really weird. Who oils trees that are still alive? Scale...