If you want to know the truth, there are more bugs than you realize out there in your yard or garden. The good news is that most of these bugs don’t harm or feed on your lawn, trees or garden crops. In fact, many of them are beneficial and some even prey on pests that would like to damage your landscape plants. In broad terms, beneficial insects and other arthropods we might find in our yard can be categorized as…
With a millage renewal up for a vote in the August primary Owen Tree Service provided financial support to the Friends of Lapeer County EMS to help get the word out to local voters. The Lapeer County EMS is a municipal authority owned by thirteen communities in Lapeer County. According to Lapeer County EMS Directory Russ Adams, the millage will only support a “bare-bones budget” with 75% of the funding going towards wages and benefits and 25% being spent on…
Cytospora canker of spruce A common malady of blue spruce trees in southeast Michigan is a tree disease called Cytospora canker. Trees 20 years of age or older tend to be affected the most. Needles on lower branches will often become yellow, then brown. Often, needles will fall off the tree while still green. After several weeks, infected lower branches will appear defoliated and dead. Usually a bluish-white resin will be observed on branches near the trunk. The presence of…
Are you having difficulty growing grass in the shady areas throughout your lawn? Our experience reveals that these areas mostly exist under and along the drip line of trees. Sometimes, having a super lush and hardy lawn in these areas is simply not possible. Shady areas are the slowest areas to wake up in the spring and turf grasses thrive best in full sun. Here are some tips on how to give your shady lawn areas the best chance for…
There are two general categories of Lice: sucking and chewing. Both are parasites. Chewing Lice do not occur on humans. Way back when, lice were responsible for millions of deaths in Europe and Asia. They were, and still, are carriers of Typhus, Trench Fever, and Relapsing Fever; serious diseases that are barely a part of the vocabulary of any culture today. Large populations of Lice built up in densely crowded populations or situations where regular personal hygiene was not possible….
These may be the most feared and misunderstood of all the insects that coexist with us in our backyard ecosystem. There are many species of wasps, hornets and yellowjackets. This article will cover the three that our clients call us about most often. Not too many people care to identify which kind of wasp or hornet is invading their space, or flying around them in a threatening manner, but they can usually be identified by how and where they build…
Although this is more of a pest in Christmas tree plantations, every once in a while we come across pine root collar weevil damage on landscape trees. Pine root collar weevil will attack both young and large pine trees. Host trees include Scotch pine, Austrian pine, red pine and occasionally white pine. The larvae feed in the phloem tissue around the root collar, killing the cambium in the process. This girdling of the tree will eventually cause it to die….
The onset of potentially record-breaking temperatures means many homeowners will be retreating to the comfort of air conditioned environments. It also means more people will delay going outside until the evening hours to enjoy a breath of fresh air and cooler temperatures. This is when it’s going to be important to protect yourself from mosquitoes. Anytime from dusk to dawn is when mosquitoes will be on the prowl and, unfortunately, some of these mosquitoes can carry arbovirus diseases that can…
The heat of the summer is here and your lawn is starting to look a bit different. If you’re not careful drought stress could reverse all that hard work you put into making your lawn the envy of the neighborhood. Water is the go-to answer for handling drought stress but it’s not always the only answer. Drought stress obviously causes aesthetic problems with your lawn but can also cause economic problems as well, causing you to spend money on corrective…
Cottony maple scale in Fenton can be a problem not just for the trees they infest but also for cars, patio furniture, or anything else that is under the tree the scale insect is feeding on. Cottony maple scale causes damage by feeding on the sap of a tree. A particularly troublesome side effect that Fenton homeowners experience is caused by the honeydew that the scale insect exudes from its body as it feeds on a tree. The honeydew drops…