•

Newsletter

65 7th Street, Decatur, MS 39327

Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity institution. Discrimination in university employment, programs, or activities based on race, color, ethnicity, sex, pregnancy, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, or any other status protected by applicable law is prohibited. Questions about equal opportunity programs or compliance should be directed to the Office of Compliance and Integrity, 56 Morgan Avenue, P.O. 6044, Mississippi State, MS 39762, (662) 325-5839.

Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, 1914. GARY B. JACKSON, Director

As a result of the rise in pollinator health awareness, more people are wanting to helpbees, but not necessarily keep them. If you fall into this category and you have a bit of agreen thumb, you can help our honey-making friends and their native bee cousins bygrowing a pollinator garden that is rich in bee forage. Most home gardens contain atleast a few species of plants that provide high-quality food for bees, but these gardensmay lack the quantity, variety, or seasonal availability of blooming plants needed todraw large numbers and abundant species of bees to them. A good pollinator gardenwill cater to the foraging preferences and behavior of bees, rather than the aestheticpreference of the homeowner—although both needs can be simultaneously andbeautifully met with thoughtful planning and an understanding of a few beessentialelements.

Flower Color MattersContrary to what many people think, honey bees cannot see colors in the red range verywell and seldom forage on red flowers unless the flowers feature nectar guides.Nevertheless, their range of color perception is quite broad—nearly equivalent to ahuman’s—spanning from ultraviolet to yellow-orange. They are most attracted to white,blue, and violet flowers. This behavior is called “flower constancy,” and it is the honeybee’s way of maximizing foraging efficiency. Flower choice is primarily dependent onflower odor and color and secondarily on flower shape. The flower constancy behavioris most pronounced in honey bees but is also present in bumblebees.

Flower Shape MattersThe length of a bee’s tongue determines what sort of flowers it can forage on, and beetongue lengths vary widely from one species to the next. Short-tongued bees, whichinclude the primitive, near-hairless cellophane bees and the yellowfaced bees, arelimited to flowers with shallow nectaries, like sunflowers, daisies, and plants in thecarrot family.

Honey bees fall into the mid-length tongue category (up to 8 mm) and can forage on awide range of flower shapes and sizes. When they encounter nectaries that are too deepto reach, they are known to “nectar rob,” or access the nectary through a hole bored inthe corolla or a space between petals.Bumblebees comprise the “long-tongued”group (9-20 mm), although there are afew short-tongued bumblebees as well.You can find bumblebees and carpenterbees sipping nectar from flowers withlong, tubular corollas (e.g., penstemmon,certain salvias, and trumpet creeper) thatseem to attract few other species of bees.

For more information, see MSUPublication 2976.

N e w t o n C o u n t y April, May, June 2019

Newsletter

Our office will be closedon Friday, April 19, for

Good Friday, and May 27for Memorial Day.

Gardening for Beneficial Bees

June 13, 2019, 10:00-12:00 Noon.Learn how to arrange cut flowers inthis hands-on workshop!Participants will create a charmingarrangement featuring Mississippi-grown flowers. Learn the propermethods of keeping flowers freshand proportionate to the floralcontainer. Bring your scissors. $25per person. Seats are limited anddue to perishability of flowers,registration closes one week prior tothe class or when filled. Sorry, norefunds. Maximum 10 participants.Register at https://register.extension.msstate.edu/lawn-garden.

May 21 - 10:30 am at the NewtonCounty Extension Office. Please callahead to make your reservation.

April 7-13, 2019!!!We applaud all those who volunteertheir time and skills in ourcommunity. If you are looking forideas on how you can volunteerthrough Mississippi State UniversityExtension Service, please give us acall at 601-635-7011 or visit ouroffice at 65 Seventh Street inDecatur.

Happy Spring! Each year I receive many calls about bees, some areabout unwanted bees while others are about how to save the beepopulation. Bees play a very important role pollinating plants. Wecan be good stewards and help them out. Below you will findinformation on how to help out honey making friends that are soimportant to us!

Sweet Mississippi FlowerBowl Workshop -

Happy Healthy CookingDemonstration

National Volunteer Week

•Page 2 4-H NEWS

NEWTONCOUNTY4-H NEWSPlease contact our office at 601-635-7011 if you are interestedin participating in any of the following activities:

NXT ROBOTICS - Open to youth ages 10-13 who are interestedin developing skills to build and program a robot. Theprogram sessions meet on Mondays at 3:30 p.m. at theExtension office. The next sessions will meet on April 15 andApril 22. Please contact our office as soon as possible to reserveyour spot in order to plan teams for competition.

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS - 4-H MHV scholarshipapplications can be picked up in the Extension office. Deadlineis April 19. This scholarship is open to graduating seniors whohave been active in 4-H for 3 or more years.

ROYAL ICING WORKSHOP - A workshop will be held onpreparing and decorating with royal icing on May 9 at 4:00p.m. Please call to reserve your spot by April 29.

4-H POSTER ART entries are due on May 22. The theme thisyear is "Inspire Youth to Think." Contact our office for a copyof the contest rules.

LEGO - Open to youth ages 5-7 who enjoy building with legopieces. This program will be taught once per month at theMSU Extension office. April 17, May 29 and June 26 at 3:30p.m. Please call our office before the meeting to reserve yourspot.

PROJECT ACHIEVEMENT DAY will be held on Tuesday, July 9at West Jones High School. This competition is open to 4-Herswho are between the ages of 8-13 as of January 1, 2019. Pleasecontact our office by May 1 to select your contest area.

HORSE SHOW PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART CONTEST - Anyyouth interested in participating in the 4-H Horse andPhotography competition are encouraged to call the MSUExtension office for rules and registration.

CLUB CONGRESS ORIENTATION will be held on May 7 at 3:30p.m. at the MSU Extension Office. Visuals and speeches will bepresented again at this meeting. Club Congress will be heldMay 29-31 at MSU.

4H RECORDS It’s time to start working on your records. If youneed in-structions on how to complete a record or if you needa record book form, please call the MSU Extension office. Iwould like to take this time to encourage all youth, volunteersand clubs to submit a record book this year. Remember toinclude all 4-H work completed from July 1, 2018 through June30, 2019. There will be monetary awards for all 1st, 2nd and3rd places for each division.

FISHING 101 - June 11. Open to youth at least 10 years of age.Must register with a parent by June 1. Space is limited, soreserve your spot as soon as possible if interested.

Follow us on Facebook at Newton CountyExtension Office for expert tips and usefulinformation regarding agriculture, safety,wildlife and more! Or for more informationor for free, useful publications, visit ourwebsite at http://extension.msstate.edu.

Dates to Remember: April 6 - Clark Co. Multi-County Match; April 11 - Magnolia Beef andPoultry Expo; April 27 - SE District ShootingSports; June 14 - Dairy Day at the NewtonFarm Bureau Office; District Horse Show -June 6-7; State Horse Show - June 18-22.

CONGRESSIONAL TEEN LEADERSHIP is open to all youth ages13 1/2 and up who are interested in gaining more leadershipskills and to become a part of a group which is involved in thecommunity. There is a registration fee to participate in theprogram. Call our office if you are interested.

New Text

Entries must be submitted to our office by May 22.

•Page 3AG AND NATURAL RESOURCES

GRANULATE AMBROSIA BEETLE ALERTby: Blake Layton, Ph.D.Extension Entomology SpecialistGranulate ambrosia beetle is a non-native bark beetle that sometimes causes mortalityof young hardwood trees. Most fatal attacks occur in early spring, about the time treesare leafing out. Trees that are stressed are more prone to attack. Growing in flooded orwater-logged conditions is a key stress factor for GAB attacks. Given the spring we havehad so far, there could be more GAB activity than usual. Of course, we issued a similarcaution last spring but did not have a great increase in activity. Still, given the damagepotential for this pest, it pays to be prepared—even if activity is only “normal.” Notethat soil-applied systemics, like imidacloprid, do not work on granulate ambrosiabeetles.

GAB is one of the “shot-hole borers.” Many species of shot-hole borers occur in Mississippi, but most of the others restrict their attack to trees,limbs, or twigs that are dead or dying. Adult female GAB are about 1/10 inch long, reddish brown in color, and their heads are bent stronglydownward, so that the head is not visible when the insect is viewed from directly above. The insects themselves are difficult to find andidentify, but trees being attacked by GAB are often easy to spot because of the toothpick-sized sticks of tightly packed saw dust that projectfrom the point of entry. These frass sticks are one of the more distinctive symptoms of a GAB attack. They may be either straight or curvedownward, and may be up to three inches long. Of course, rain and wind soon break these off, leaving only birdshot-sized, sawdust-packedentrance holes. A few of the other shot-hole borers will also produce these sticks of frass, but less consistently than GAB. GAB attacks manydifferent species of hardwood trees, but it seems to be particularly fond of species that are relatively smooth-barked, especially if they aregrowing in containers or have been recently transplanted. Some of the species we see it in most often are: Bradford pear, fig, crape myrtle,maple, sweet gum, magnolia, pecan, peach, ornamental cherries, and even woody vines like muscadine and shrubs like azalea, but there aremore than a hundred other documented hosts. Note that GAB does not attack conifers. Attacks to nursery stock occur in the spring of the yearjust before or during bud break, and attacks subside after trees have leafed out. Depending on location, the spring flight of GAB occurs frommid-February through April. Once GABs initiate an attack on a tree, they release pheromones that attract other GABs to the tree.

Prevention and Control: What can be done to prevent or control GAB? First, keep trees healthy and free of stress to reduce the likelihood ofattack. This helps a lot even though GAB can and will successfully attack “apparently healthy” trees. Newly transplanted trees in landscapes,containerized plants growing in nurseries, and fruit trees that have recently been pruned are stressed, even when under the best of care, andthese are some of the most common victims of GAB. Keeping trees as healthy and free of stress and mechanical injury as possible makesthem less prone to attack.

Although it makes sense to remove trees that are under attack and to burn or otherwise destroy the wood to keep beetles of the nextgeneration from emerging and moving to other trees in the landscape/nursery/orchard, don’t be too hasty to do this. Trees that are alreadyunder attack are highly attractive to other GAB in the area, and GABs will usually come to a tree that is already infested rather than going toa nearby uninfested tree. This means you can leave newly infested trees standing a few weeks and use them as a trap to draw GABs away fromother trees in the area. Just be sure to cut and destroy infested trees before the beetles have time to complete their life cycle. It takes around 55days for GAB to complete a generation. By leaving an infested tree standing for three to four weeks after it is first attacked, you can get thetrapping effect through most of the first/spring generation and still have time to destroy it before second generation beetles emerge.

Preventive insecticide treatments can be applied to trunks and large limbs of susceptible trees. The objective of such treatments is to providean insecticide barrier on the bark that kills the beetles before they are able to bore into the wood and deposit eggs. When applied in latewinter/early spring, trunk sprays can help protect susceptible nursery stock, young fruit trees, and newly transplanted trees from early springattacks. But timing is critical because none of these products will kill beetles that have already bored into the trunk. These insecticidetreatments work only by killing beetles just as they reach the tree and begin to bore in. Therefore, they have to be applied preventively.

Insecticide options for GAB are limited. Soil-applied systemic treatments do not work against this pest, but there are some useful contactinsecticides. Several brand name products containing permethrin are available to homeowners and are labeled for use as trunk sprays to aidin control of wood-boring insects (Hi-Yield 38 Plus is one example). However, because the residual control provided by permethrin only lasttwo to three weeks, repeated treatments may be necessary. A longer-lasting trunk treatment that can be used in commercial nurseries andlandscapes is a product called Onyx Pro (active ingredient is bifenthrin). Onyx Pro is not labeled for use by homeowners, but it can beapplied in home and commercial landscapes by properly licensed commercial applicators. Therefore, homeowners who wish to use Onyx Prowill need to hire a professional applicator to make the treatments. Onyx Pro is not labeled for use on fruit trees.

For more information on getting rid of or preventing the Granulate Ambrosia Beetle, please contact our office at 601-635-7011.

•

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________