It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic with a variety of disease and insect samples. Remember you can check the PIDC’s facebook page to ask questions and for updates and more pictures.
Variegated cutworms have been numerous in reports from home gardens and landscapes around the state. Damage appears as large irregular holes in hostas and other plants. In the garden, tomatoes are a favored host and both leaves and small green fruits will be damaged. See HHPN from June 1, 2001 for more information and HHPN from May 2, 2011 for photos.
Japanese beetles are back! Reports from central and eastern Iowa indicate the emergence has begun approximately 2 to 2.5 weeks earlier than normal. For more information see the Clinic online article.
Now is the time to expect reports of carpenter bees burrowing into exposed wood rafters and joists. Learn more from the June 23, 2010 issue of HHPN.
Leaf mold on a tomato leaf.
Septoria leaf spot on a Black-eyed Susan
Stalk borer.
Picnic beetles.
Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Horticulture and Home Pest News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on June 13, 2012. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.