As the heat intensifies, questions about lawns and bugs increase. Here are some questions I encountered this past week.

Q: What is causing the dry look to my lawn? I am watering like the Water District's lawn watering guide suggests.

A: First, check the sprinklers to make sure they are covering the area. Place a few cat or dog food or tuna fish cans across the lawn. After running the sprinklers for the allotted time, note the differences in water distribution within the cans. Ideally, they should all have the same amount of water. If you find different amounts, you need to fix or adjust your sprinklers.

Since turf is hard to rewet, poke holes in the dried area with a screwdriver or pitchfork to open up the soil. Here is a step we often fail to do, rewet the area, but a dry lawn repels water like duck down. To solve this dilemma, place a tablespoon of liquid-detergent in a gallon of water and drench the area. Finally, turn on your sprinklers and give the area a good -- and I mean good --soaking. This will resurrect your lawn in a few days.

Q: What kind of bug is eating irregular chunks of my privet leaves and how do I control them?

A: They are root weevils and you'll also find them on euonymus plants. They do their feeding at night and then move under plants for shelter during the day. To control them, clean up the debris under the infested plants and spray the area with and an organic product called neem. Or place burlap sacks or boards under plants to concentrate the insects for collection. Just before dusk, have your fun destroying them. Also give the bush a vigorous shaking to catch all those that may have escaped the traps. As their name implies, they feed during the winter on the roots of plants.

Q: How do we control ants? They are all over our yard.

A: "Make a mixture of boric acid and peanut butter or boric acid in sugar water and then make little bait stations along the ant trail," said Bob Stauffer of the Nevada Cooperative Extension. "As they pass by, they carry it back to the queen and baby ants. It takes about four to six weeks before you kill the nest. Killing the worker ants doesn't get the bait to the queen or her baby ants."

Q: What are the inverted cones or funnels I find in the soft dirt under my pine trees?

A: Antlions or doodlebugs make them. They certainly won't harm you, but note how they trap their prey. The antlions dig cones about an inch wide and deep in the soft dirt. Its larvae, which are about a half-inch long and the same color as soil, hide just below the soil surface in the bottom of the cone. Ants fall in the cone and can't climb out because of the soft dirt. They soon end up in the jaws of antlions and a struggle ensues with a lot of soil going helter-skelter in the process.

Here's the fun part: Have your children drop some ants in the cones. They can witness the "law of the jungle" in action as the antlion takes on the ant.

Q: What is causing the leaves on my pyracantha to develop copper-colored leaves?

A: Your description tells me its mite damage. The best way to control mites is to wash them off with a strong jet of water. Doing this weekly will keep plants nearly free of mites. If infestations are severe, use a soap spray. Make your soap spray by mixing 1/4 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid in one gallon of water. Spray in the morning when it is cool and repeat a week later. The second spray gets the newly hatched mites from the eggs left by the adults.

True, we don't like really hot weather, but pesky spider mites love it. They particularly like that little rain has come to wash them off the leaves. They also enjoy the fact plants stressed by hot weather are easier to attack. If you've noticed your Italian cypress or junipers turning brown, it's from the feeding of these tiny pests. In fact, if you look closely, you can see the webs they spin over the needles. The size of a pinhead, mites can only be seen well with the aid of a magnifying glass. I look for them by taking a white sheet of paper and holding it under suspicious looking branches. Give the branch a hard shake over the paper and mites fall off, appearing as tiny specks scampering for shade off the white background.

Q: What are bugs stripping my grape leaves and turning them into lacy skeletons?

A: You have described damage caused by grape leaf skeletonizer caterpillars. They emerge from eggs laid by a moth. The best control is to pick them off and destroy them or spray with an organic product sold under the names Dipel or Thuricide. It's a bacteria that caterpillars ingest and in a few days die. By the way, the bacteria has no effect on us or our pets and wildlife.

Q: Why do you recommend Epson salts on roses when we have oodles in our soils?

A: I've posed the same question to the rose society and they are fighting words.

"Epson salts or magnesium sulfate generates canes and puts substance in roses and blooms to make them last longer," said rosarian Lee Heenan.

It is much like potassium; we have oodles in our soils but are just beginning to find out about its hidden virtues.

Q: We planted a cat's claw against the side of our two-story house. It is now reaching the top of the house and friends say we are inviting potential damage to the house with it penetrating the wood and getting in under the root tile. Are we inviting potential serious damage to our house? We hope not, as we love its vining habits and the extraordinary flowers!

A: No, no, no, don't take it down. I think your friends dealt with Algerian Ivy, and it can be the problem they described. That is the beauty of cat claw. Look how it attaches to the wall. It has claws like a cat. Take your finger and place in the claws of the plant and then pull and push. It responds the same way cat claws do. Try pulling the claws off and then pushing against the claw. You will find that the vine does the same thing when you push it, the vine falls away.

"If I were you, " said Dennis Swartzell of Mountain States Nursery, "I'd trim back the top of the plant to about a foot below the eaves. This does two things: It forces greenery to come out along the bottom of the plant and creates a bushier plant. The vine creates the most unusual patterns as it covers the home surfaces and if put where it gets plenty of sun, big, trumpet-type flowers cover the vine."

Q: What is causing brown blotches on my pecan leaves and why are the leaves so small?

A: Your tree is expressing a nitrogen and zinc deficiency, so apply these elements to the tree. You also might find poor development of kernels as they mature. This is an indication your plant is running shy of phosphorous. Apply nitrogen, phosphorous and zinc to pecan to produce normal-size leaf growth and to enhance kernel development. Pecans also need more water than most shade trees, especially during kernel development.

Linn Mills writes a gardening column each Thursday. You can reach him at linn@reviewjournal.com or at the Gardens at the Springs Preserve at 822-8325.