Q: I found 50 to 100 red and black beetles running around the rocks in my yard while I was pulling weeds. If these numbers are representative, I must have thousands. A friend thinks they may be boxelder bugs, but I don’t have any boxelder trees in my yard. The pictures of boxelder bugs online are similar but do not look exactly like these. So what are they and should I declare war on them and begin spraying?
Q: About 1/3 of my fruit trees are dying. Some of the branches on a sick tree look healthy; some of the branches on the same tree look dead. There is sap coming from some of the trees. I fear it is a borer infestation. I am scraping the bark and spraying with Neem oil. What do you think?
Q: I have a young, fruiting mulberry and realized too late that it’s planted too close to a wall. When would you recommend is the best time to dig it up and transplant?
Q: We have lost a tremendous section of our garden. In researching, it appears fire blight disease is the problem. Our red-tip photinia was the first and, in a very short time, it looked as if someone had taken a flame thrower to the plants. Euonymus hedges, flowering pink hawthorn and some rose bushes are starting to show the same problem.
Q: I would like to replace a huge mulberry tree in my front yard; roots are very invasive, but the shade is wonderful. We have a west-facing home. I would like to replace it with a small bay laurel for cooking purposes and a shoestring acacia for shade. Are these trees invasive, and would both be too much?
Q: My next-door neighbor cut down large pine trees that shaded my wall of star jasmine two days ago. Is there any point trying to rig a shade cloth to get through the rest of the summer hoping they can “harden off” to full sun or should I basically pronounce them dead and start the grieving process now?
Q: Why are the lower limbs on my cypress tree drooping?
Q: I appear to have a massive infestation of white, cottony cochineal scale on my prickly pear cactus. I can usually get most of it off by hosing, but much of it is hard to reach. Beyond hosing, what insecticide or other kind of solutions do you recommend? Permanent, if possible!
Q: My oleanders need trimming. They are still blooming and the weather is hot. Is it safe to trim them now or did I miss my opportunity?
Q: When do you cut back summer tomato plants to get a second crop in the early fall? I need to know this and any special treatment needed, such as fertilizing, to promote new growth.
Q: We have an 8-year-old honeysuckle plant that will not produce blossoms. They get one or two blossoms each year but do not produce massive amounts. We tried various fertilizers to no avail. What can we do to stimulate blossoms?
Q: I have a new Early Grande peach which produced more than 80 blossoms. I removed 50 of the fruit when they were small and harvested the rest when the fruit ripened. Now the leaves are turning yellow and dropping off. I am watering the tree for 40 minutes, three times a week so the tree is getting 16 gallons a week.
Hot weather favors lawn diseases common here. Now is an optimum time for controlling lawn diseases before they in get into full swing. If your lawn had disease in the past, now is a good time to apply a fungicide. Fungicides are primarily preventive and work best when they are applied before the disease rears its ugly head.
Our spring this year was cool and wet. Even our early summer was that way. This kind of weather was good for producing a lot of tomatoes but not necessarily for high-quality fruit from fruit trees.
Q: I planted acorn and butternut squash last winter from seed and they didn’t grow. Now they are growing. The acorn squash is doing really well. I thought winter squash would ripen in the winter. Will these be edible?
