Below are three informative and helpful articles from Eddie Ayers, County Extension Agent:

Controlling Fleas

As the summer has heated up, the battle cry has become, “Fleas are eating us alive. What should I use to control them?” The answer is that you need to use persistence! But before you go off to buy a chemical called ‘Persistence’, allow me to explain.

You can reduce flea numbers with a single spray, but expect them to come back. To manage a flea population, you will need to diligently clean and/or treat all areas at the same time.

One step inside the home is to vacuum carpets and upholstery at least twice a week, then immediately seal the vacuum bag in a plastic bag and discard it.

Wash, treat or discard animal bedding. Treat all pets according to your veterinarian’s instructions. You must treat the pets when you treat the home or lawn. Treating the pet is a very important step in controlling the fleas in the house and yard. Once fleas are under control, a regular pet treatment may be enough to manage flea numbers. To be effective, all possible flea habitats must also be treated at the same time. This includes not only treating your pet, but their bedding and the home.

Should we treat inside if we only have a problem outside? Probably not, but make sure that you do not have fleas inside. Fleas would rather feed on pets than us. Watch pets for scratching and examine them closely for fleas by parting the hair and looking at their skin.

Try to avoid spraying indoors. If you must treat, spray or fog carpets with products that have pyripoxyfen, tetramethrin, sumithrin, pyrethrins, permethrin, or another labeled insecticide as an active ingredient. Keep in mind that some insecticides may stain or leave a strong smell, so take proper precautions for your home. You will probably need to treat it again since insecticides only kill adults, not eggs. So spray again in four to seven days to kill newly hatching fleas. Be sure to read and follow the label to know how often to treat.

One way of avoiding the second and third sprays is to add an insect growth regulator to the insecticide. These do not kill fleas but rather keep them from maturing. Traditional insecticides kill the adult fleas and these growth regulators prevent hatching fleas from maturing. Together, these two chemicals make a good combination in controlling fleas.

Nylar (pyriproxyfen) is one insect growth regulator. Methoprene is another. Read the label to check active ingredients as some products have both types of insecticide. If the product does not have both types, mix one of these with an insecticide sprayed inside the house to extend control. Growth regulators break down too quickly outside to be very effective.

In the yard, cut the grass short and treat repeatedly. Spray all areas at the same time. Use any of the above mentioned insecticides or other labeled insecticide for added control. Read and follow all label directions. Do not spray more often than the label recommends. Remember for best control, all areas must be cleaned and/or treated at the same time.

Home remedies for fleas generally do not work. Lime will not run them off and even if it did, where would they go? They cannot travel very far quickly.

In South Georgia, Southern Wax Myrtle is a plant that is supposed to repel fleas. Also, if you have access to lamb’s fleece, it is a good product to line a pet’s bed with. There is enough natural lanolin in the fleece to kill fleas.

Flea control requires perseverance. Manage fleas by controlling them at all points – inside, outside, on the pet and in the pet’s bedding. If you miss treating the fleas in one of these areas, the rest of the areas can be re-infested. Also, remember to follow up with a second treatment soon after the first to kill the hatching fleas. These methods should help you to keep from having a flea circus in your yard or home.

Japanese Beetle: The Stomach With Wings

By: Eddie Ayers, County Extension Agent

As the temperature has risen, so have the insects that attack our favorite plants. If the leaves are showing a pattern of skeletonized leaves (leaves in which the green of the leaf is eaten, but the brown middle is still there), then you have been invaded by the Japanese beetle. They have an appetite that would put most teenagers to shame. The adult beetles eat almost everything in their path. Because of the numbers at which they emerge, the damage they cause is very noticeable, but it typically does not cause permanent damage to the plant.

The adult stage only lasts four to eight weeks during the summer. During the rest of the year the insect lives underground as the immature larva, or white grub. The grubs feed on the roots of your lawn during the later part of the summer, and spend the winter deep in the soil. After the soil warms in the spring, the grubs come back to the root zone and feed some more. They then pupate and emerge as the adult beetles to feed, mate, and start the cycle over again.

The best way to control this pest is to attack the adults and larvae. There are many options for control of the adults. During the early part of the season you can pick them off with your hands. Keep a jar of soapy water with you as your pick them from your plants. Typically you can just brush them off into the jar because they will usually drop down before they try to fly.

If the number of adults gets really high, chemical control is sometimes an option you have to take. Carbaryl (Sevin), dinotefuran (Safari), and imidacloprid (Bayer Advanced and others) are labeled for control of adult beetles. Follow the label directions for the rate and frequency of application. During the thick part of the emergence, repeated applications may be needed to maintain control.

To control the larvae, treat your lawn in the fall to kill the grub form of the beetle. The fall is the best time to treat as the larvae are small and near the surface. There are several labeled grub control products available including products that contain trichlorfon (Bayer Advanced), imidacloprid, carbaryl (Sevin), halofenozide (Grub-B-Gon), and dinotefuran (Safari). Water the lawn before and after the applications of the chemical to ensure a successful treatment and always read and follow the label when using insecticides.

Trapping is not recommended as a control method unless you have a large lawn and can put the traps out away from the desirable landscape. Typically traps only attract the beetles to your yard. You may be able to capture a half gallon of beetles from the traps, but you also may have brought in another whole gallon worth of beetles to your plants and garden. You can use the traps early in the season as an indicator of when they are coming, but take the trap down as soon as you start catching beetles.

If you have any questions, contact me at the Gilmer County Extension office.

Johnsongrass: Friend or Foe

By: Eddie Ayers, County Extension Agent

A common sight right now is thick stands of what might be confused for early corn growing on roadsides, pastures, and hayfields. What you’re seeing is most likely Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense). One important question that is often asked is what good is this plant? Is it a beneficial forage plant or merely a persistent weed?

Johnsongrass is a summer perennial grass that belongs to the sorghum family and can serve as a good forage crop in our pastures and hayfields. Livestock will graze young Johnsongrass plants if given the chance, as it is relatively high in crude protein and is highly digestible. The issues with Johnsongrass arise from its persistent growth and potential toxicity issues for livestock. When stressed by drought or frost damage, the plant produces hydrocyanic acid which is a derivative of cyanide, also known as prussic acid. This compound can be very toxic and even lethal to cattle.

Johnsongrass grows from a very thick set of fibrous roots and rhizomes (underground root nodules that form new plants) that make the plant more difficult to kill because it can “fall back” on energy stores in these rhizomes whenever the plant is stressed, whether by grazing, mowing, or herbicides. These rhizomes can also form new plants if disturbed or cut (by plowing or by leaving part of the root in the ground). These rhizomes over‐winter and send out new shoots in the spring and early summer. Johnsongrass also reproduces by seed, with a single plant producing 80,000 seeds per year. Because of these tendencies, Johnsongrass can be very persistent in a field if not controlled early and often.

Even though the symptoms of poisoning from Johnsongrass look like nitrate poisoning, the prussic acid can dissipate over time within the forage. If a large field of Johnsongrass is cut for hay, the hay should be dried to a safe baling content (15 to 18%) to ensure the prussic acid content has dissipated. Young plants, plants killed after frost, or plants growing after a long drought are the most susceptible to high prussic acid levels.

Control of this plant is difficult if it’s allowed to take control of a field in large areas. Tillage is not recommended as it will most likely make the problem worst by distributing more rhizomes. Pulling up of plants is possible, but making sure that all the root is dug up is important. Mowing or grazing to prevent seed head production will help keep the plant at bay, but it will not remove the plant from the field.

There are some herbicides available to control Johnsongrass, but most of them cannot be used in tall fescue, which is the major part of our hayfields and pastures in Gilmer County. Treatment of plants with glyphosate (Roundup) will allow for translocation of the product into the root system. One good option to get the glysophate to the Johnsongrass and not harm the desirable forage is through a wick applicator. Fortunately in our area the Limestone Valley Soil and Water Conservation District has one that can be rented. It is housed at Hinton Milling Company in Jasper and you can contact them to schedule a time to get it. You can also make or buy a wick applicator.

For more information, contact me at the Gilmer County Extension office.

Adam Speir, County Agent, UGA Extension, Madison County, contributed to this article.

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