Small pests can sour figs and other fruits

Q: I have a Brown Turkey fig tree in my backyard. It's approximately 7 years old, healthy and a good looking shade tree, but the figs are yucky. It seems that the figs on the old wood are tastier and a bit sweeter than on the new wood. I used to get delicious figs up to three years ago, but no more. What does the tree need? I water it four times a week in the summer and fertilize it in early spring and fall.

A: Although a good fig for us, Brown Turkey has one major disadvantage. On the bottom of the fig is a round opening called the "eye." On some figs the eye is quite large and open. In other varieties the eye is quite small and not open much at all. You will see pictures of the "eye" of a fig on my blog.

There are a couple of small pests that can get inside the fig through the eye and cause it to "sour." This might be what you are experiencing because Brown Turkey has a fairly large eye and is prone to that.

The usual culprit is a small beetle called the dried fruit beetle. Other small insects also might be responsible but once the beetle enters the fruit, it spoils quickly and is inedible. That pest also attacks soft fresh fruit on trees such as peaches, nectarines and plums. It also is considered a pantry pest and will attack dried fruit, cereals, grains and other things in your house.

Control is usually pretty easy: sanitation. Pick up soft or damaged fruits from the ground. Do not leave soft, damaged, bird-pecked or other fruit on the tree.

Remove them. If you are composting, do not leave fruit on top of the compost pile or those insects will get into the fruit, multiply and get into other fruit.

I usually put damaged fruit for composting in barrels with a cover to keep insects out of the fruit until it can be turned under in the compost pile or the end of the season.

Q: What type of pest is this? They seem to be on and around several of my fruit trees (apple, pomegranate and plum) but don't appear to be causing any leaf or bark damage. I did notice that there were several worm holes in the soil around my grape vines, but didn't see any of those bugs on my grape leaves. Are the pests harmful to my vines/trees? If harmful, how can they be controlled and/or eliminated?

A: Well that is one of the June beetles. They also can be called scarab beetles. Generally they all look the same except for their color. They are obviously beetles with that hard outer shell and range from one-half inch to 1 inch in length, generally speaking. Colors range from your light brown one to dark brown and shiny metallic colors such as green.

There are so many different types that it is hard to narrow it down unless you were to take it to an entomologist. But some of them, like the Japanese beetle - which does not live in Southern Nevada and is not your pest - can cause a lot of damage to plants.

Another scarab beetle is the green June beetle, which is very common here, and we will start seeing now. It can attack fresh fruits such as figs and peaches. Yours is not the green June beetle, however, because that pest is a very distinctive metallic green color. I will post a picture of it on my blog.

The immature form, grubs, of some of these June beetles can cause a lot of damage, just like white grubs that attack the roots of lawns causing wilting and extensive brown patches. The best I can tell you about this one is that the immature form (the beetle is the adult) could have possibly been attacking the roots of some plants in your garden.

They also could have been in a compost pile because the grubs do like rotting and decaying plants. Some are actually dung beetles.

If you don't see a lot of them and don't see any damage, then don't worry about it. They are part of some life cycle out in the garden and as long as the numbers are low, they are not causing much damage.

Q: I need some help. About a month ago I was advised by a gardener that two ornamental fir trees needed to be sprayed. He suggested I use Ortho Volck, and I did that at the prescribed dilution rate. Now both trees seem to be in trouble . Did I spray too heavily? What can I do to try to save these firs?

A: Dormant or summer oils are not supposed to be applied to Douglas fir, spruces such as birds nest, many juniper and cedars. I assume Volck oil says that on the label. It may cause defoliation or needle drop. In some cases you might have some branch dieback, perhaps enough to ruin the looks. It is safe on pines if you follow the rate of application.

You mention that you have fir trees, which are unusual in the Las Vegas Valley, but if these are in any of the above categories, you could have spray damage. If the damage is not too severe, I think they will drop damaged needles and show some new growth from terminal buds and buds inside the canopy (branches). Hopefully they will recover.

Q: I have, as you suggested, a Utah Sweet pomegranate in Henderson. The bush is dropping all of its blossoms and if this continues, I will get no fruit from it this year. Any suggestions as to how I can help it retain its blossoms and fruit?

A: Make sure you use surface mulch and watch your watering. Make sure it is watered deeply, but not too often, and even more importantly the soil does not go dry between waterings. You should be irrigating deeply twice a week at this time of the year.

If this is a small plant (5 gallons) then 5 to 10 gallons of water at each irrigation is plenty .

There is a definite difference among varieties in how young they start setting fruit. One of the earliest to set fruit is Sharps Velvet, also a good variety for our area. Stay calm and patient. This is an excellent variety for here.

Q: We have a Texas umbrella tree that is approximately 15 years old. In spring when it blossoms, it produces these peas/pods that drop on the lawn and are a pain to remove because we have synthetic grass. This also occurs in the fall when the leaves drop.

Is there a spray or solution we can use to eliminate these annoying peas/pods? I really don't want to remove the tree (it's my favorite) but it really hurts my husband's back when he has to rake them and vacuum them with the indoor/outdoor vacuum. Can you help us?

A: This is going to be a tough one. There are several products that are supposed to eliminate or remove flowers or fruit from trees and shrubs. The problem will be they've never been tested on the Texas umbrella tree so the rate of application and timing might be difficult to establish without doing some experimentation.

Most likely any chemical that you use will have to be sprayed over the entire canopy of the tree at least once or possibly even twice, depending on what the label tells you to do. You can try Florel Fruit Eliminator, for example, and follow the labels precisely if it is going to work. Missing an application by even a couple of days might mean it will not work. Let me know how it turns out.

Bob Morris is a horticulture expert living in Las Vegas; he is on special assignment in the Balkh Province, Afghanistan, for the University of California, Davis. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com.