Native Plants
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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Tuesday - February 05, 2013
From: San Antonio, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Pests, Groundcovers
Title: Eliminating wood roaches from hardwood mulch from San Antonio TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
How can I eliminate the numerous wood roaches in my hardwood mulch that I get for free from the city of San Antonio?ANSWER:
If you are getting wood roaches delivered with your free hardwood mulch, we think "free" may be too high a price.
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal, an article on Pests are price to pay for using wood mulch
We are gardeners, not entomologists, but we do recommend mulch quite frequently for gardens, so we will try to address this problem. We found several expert articles on the subject, hopefully one of them will give you the information you need.
eHow How to Kill Wood Roaches From that article:
Exterminators are usually not needed for wood roaches because they usually do not infect homes, and they only last for a few weeks out of the year.
"Wood cockroaches are a group of minor cockroach pests. They are native to North America. Males are usually plain brown and 1 inch or less in length. Females are shorter and broader than males. Generally, females range in color from light to dark brown, with wings only half the length of the body or shorter. Males are good fliers and are often found around lights at night. Sometimes males fly into buildings. Outdoors, wood cockroaches are found in areas such as wood piles, mulch, and leaf litter. Indoors, wood cockroaches cannot survive very well and are seldom a problem."
More Pests Questions
Yellow jackets on non-native crape myrtles
September 25, 2008 - Hey Mr. Smarty Plants I have only 1 question. I have several Crape Myrtles that have numerous amounts (alarming) of yellow jacket bees on them. who what where when why etc? Should I be concerned? tha...
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Plants that animals won't eat from Ione WA
April 19, 2013 - In Ione Washington and need to know what types of plants and flowers I can plant that animals in that area wont eat?
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Caterpillars on Mountain Laurel from Austin
July 25, 2013 - My 1-yr old mountain laurel has been decimated by small yellow and black catepillars. It recovered a bit and pushed out some fresh new growth, and more came and decimated that too. Are these caterpi...
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Control of grasshoppers from Goldthwaite TX
July 07, 2012 - How long do grasshoppers live. They are eating our flowers, plants and trees.
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Honeybees swarming around galls on oak trees
September 28, 2015 - A large number of honeybees have descended on a live oak tree in my backyard. They appear to be feeding on the numerous galls on the tree as if they were flowers. What's going on?
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