Extension Notes: Fair time arrives in Warren County
The Warren County A&L Fair is under way at the fairgrounds here in McMinnville, and it’s a sight to see.
This is the 23rd year I’ve had the opportunity to work with the fair and it’s great. The best thing about the fair to me is the number of volunteers that work during the year, during fair week or that work on a particular project like George Roberts works on the dairy goat show or Don Griffith and Jim Welch work on the horse show. Jamison Crouch runs the youth goat show. He’s really trying hard to build the numbers up. George Campbell is one of Steve Grandey’s board members and he also takes care of the beautiful plants and beds that seem to be growing in number and size at the fair.
Don’t forget the Master Gardeners Association, they’ve planted and fixed up several areas at the fair with George’s help. Randy England and Dennis Taylor will do plenty of work getting the Chainsaw Challenge up and going on Saturday at the fair. Wayne Davenport and Kenneth Medlen set up the stage several nights at the fair. J. B. Moore is the head of the livestock barn at the fair and also serves on the board of directors. J. B. furnishes a bunch of muscle getting the barn ready for the different livestock shows during the fair week. Regan Kelsey, Kevin Lawrence, David Sneed, Diane Sneed, Teresa Moore, and Jeff Carter are some of the folks that give of their time in allowing young people the opportunity to show their livestock at our fair.
We’ll have an exciting cattle show Friday night and a good horse show on Saturday but if you decide to go to either event look around, you’ll only see a few of the volunteers working the event there’s a bunch more working in the background.
LADY BEETLE REMINDER:
‘THE GAME IS WON OR LOST IN LATE SEPTEMBER/EARLY OCTOBER’
Listed below is information from Dr. Karen Vail, UT Extension entomologist and Ohio State University about the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle.
According to predictions by Ohio State University Personnel, Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (MALB) start searching for over-wintering sites, your home, on the first or second day when temperatures are greater the 65E˚F after a dramatic drop in temperature, usually to near freezing. The MALB invasion started on October 6, 2004 in Minnesota. In Knoxville, the peak flight occurred around October 20 or 21, 2004.
Conduct Steps 1 and 2 by late September/early October , before MALB start their invasion.
1. Pest-Proof: seal entry points, keep window screens intact, screen vent openings, etc., before the beetles arrive. (See our UT Extension Service SP 503C Lady Beetles Invading Homes [http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/spfiles/sp503c.pdf ] for more specific recommendations on sealing entry points.)
2. Treat roof lines or soffits, vertical contrast areas, and entry points ( around the following outdoor items: windows, doors, vents, pipe penetrations) with pesticides before the beetles arrive. Products available to homeowners, such as Terro Ant Killer (0.2% permethrin w/PBO) and Bayer Advanced Home (0.1% cyfluthrin) provided 96 and 92% effectiveness at 3 weeks post-treatment. Retreatment in 3 weeks may be necessary, especially if beetles have not invaded yet and if rain has been common.
3. Remove dead beetles as they pile up because they may cause other MALB to aggregate.
4. If the beetles make their way into the home, vacuum or try a light trap (see description below). Insert a knee-high nylon stocking into the extension hose or wand of a vacuum or dry vac and secure the stocking with a rubber band (see http://ohioline.osu.edu/hse-fact/1030.html).
When the vacuum is turned off, remove the stocking so the rubber band will close around it, thus catching the lady beetles. You can then discard the contents of the stocking. Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to prevent allergens from becoming airborne.
Refrain from using foggers indoors because they will not kill the majority of lady beetles which are hidden, they increase your exposure to insecticides unnecessarily and could supply carpet beetles, larder beetles and other scavengers with food.
Trap Updates from OSU. A commercial black light trap caught 90% of the lady beetles released into an OSU study room. The manufacturer, Southeastern Insectaries, (877-967-6777 or 478-988-9412, [email protected]) has upgraded this indoor light trap (BL) and suggests it is most effective when it doesn’t compete with sunlight and, to a lesser degree, other light sources.
Thus, it is best operated during the night with no or limited competing light sources or in dark spaces such as attics or crawl spaces. These traps are mobile and should be moved to the rooms with the most beetle activity. If the beetles can’t see the light, it won’t work. Cost of this light trap is about $140.
The Ohio State University IPM Staff developed an inexpensive trapping device for use in homes. In their tests, the homemade trap caught about 70 percent of the released beetles in a room. During a presentation, Dr. Joe Kovach, OSU, mentioned that an incandescent bulb worked as well as a black light tube, but a black light incandescent bulb was not very effective. The homemade trap worked better if the funnel and collecting container (both plastic milk jugs) were painted black and dusted with talc. Descriptions of both light traps listed above can be found at http://ipm.osu.edu/lady/Lighttraps.htm. Give me a call here at the Extension office if you have questions about the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle.