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Peter from Maplecrest Homes had mentioned to me that he had found gypsy moth caterpillars that had hatched. So this weekend, I was at the Royal Botanical Gardens . 
At the Lilac Gardens, there are oak trees all around
the parking circle. I know that there were gypsy moth caterpillars there last spring. Sure enough, you could see the little devils just starting to crawl around on the egg sacs. At this stage, they haven't started to do any damage yet.
This year could be another bad year for gypsy moth caterpillars. Certain areas were devastated by the defoliation caused by these hungry, voaracious leaf chewing insects.
Certainly, defoliation can be very stressful on the plants and successive defoliations can possibly lead to the demise of a tree.
For the major trees that are 4 inches in diameter or more, we recommend the use of Acecaps. With Acecaps, the capsules will place a systemic insecticide into the sap stream of the tree. Once the sap has the insecticide in it, the leaf of the trees containing that sap is now unhealthy for the caterpillars.
The advantage of Acecaps is that they can be applied without affecting anything else. There is no need to worry about cars, people who may be in the vicinity. The Acecaps also will last the entire season and its effect is not washed away by rain.
For smaller trees and shrubs, we have an organic insecticide that will knock out the caterpillars. It also greatly reduces damage by acting as an anti-feedant.
If you have any questions about gypsy moth caterpillars see our Library - Gypsy Moth Caterpillars or do a search of our website for more blog entries.
This time of year we get to see a whole range of lawns. Some are good, some are in poor shape, and some are in between. Hence "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly." The pictures, however, may not be in that order!
Regular feeding of the lawn is an important part of having a great lawn. The dappled shade on the good lawn brings out the nice green tones of the turf.
In a lawn where insects have been a problem, the good lawn species are destroyed, the coarse thick, undesirable quack grasses have a chance to spread more, and the weeds jump into the bare spots. This means that this lawn will require some work to get it back into shape.
Bentgrass is not a grass or turf species that is desirable in home lawns. This winter has been hard on a lot of bentgrass patches in lawns. Here is one where the entire patch of bentgrass has turned brown. If
How do 2,4-D mixtures used to kill weeds on lawns compare in toxicity to coffee?
2,4-D is a common weed killer used in lawn care programs to keep dandelions and other weeds out of lawns. How toxic is this commonly used pesticide? Do you still want to drink coffee?
According to kidshealth.org . . . “Although the
From Wikipedia, we find that “The median lethal dose (LD50) of caffeine is 192 milligrams per kilogram in rats.” The wikipedia article also states that “In general, one serving of coffee ranges from 40 milligrams, for a single shot (30 milliliters) of arabica-variety espresso, to about 100 milligrams for a cup (120 milliliters) of drip coffee.”
On the toxicity of 2,4-d, Wikipedia says “The LD50 . . . according to US EPA 2,4-D Reregistration Eligiblity Decision, 2006, is 639 mg/kg.” This means that the main herbicidal ingredient used in common lawn weed killer mixtures is 3 time LESS toxic than caffeine.
2,4-D is usually found in a mixture. If one were to use the LD50 of Killex a common retail product – the LD50 is listed as 375 mg/kg- which would make it only HALF as toxic as caffeine.
But what about the toxicity in its common form. For coffee- LD50 192 milligrams per kilogram with 40 milligrams per 120 milliliter cup. This calculates that a 1 kg rat would have to drink 192/40 = 4.8 cups of coffee to get the 192 milligrams of caffeine to provide a Lethal Dose to 50% of the population. At 120 ml per cup that would mean 576 millilitres of coffee.
According to about.com, an average female weighs 162 pounds (=162/2.24= 72 kg). This means this average female would have to drink 4.8 cups times 72 kg or 561 cups of coffee to receive a lethal dose of caffeine.
How about 2,4-D is in a spray mixture? According to terralink-horticulture.com , the LD50 for the Killex mixture is >5000 mg/kg.
If Killex weighs similar to water, then 1 ml weighs 1 mg. Which means the poor rat would have to drink/ingest 5000 ml or 5 litres of Killex concentrate to receive a lethal dose.
Therefore compared to coffee, Killex concentrate is 5000/576 is 8 times less toxic than coffee.
Since Killex ( a common weed control mixture) is normally used in a mix the same rate would need a large volume of Killex mixture. The suggested rate is 5.5 Litres per hectare in 300-1,500 Litres. Using the most concentrated rate would mean 5.5 L/300 Litres or 5500 ml/300 litres or which equals 55ml/3 litres or 19 ml/litre Therefore to get 500 mg of Killex into that poor rat, he would need to ingest 5000/19 = 263 litres of Killex mixture.
In comparison, therefore the weed killer sprayed on lawns is 263 litres/.576 litres or 456 times LESS toxic than coffee. Weed killer spray is 456 times LESS toxic than Coffee.
