Indiana Department of Natural Resources sent this bulletin at 07/20/2022 08:00 AM EDT
Weekly Review for July 20, 2022
This informal report by the Division of Entomology & Plant Pathology is a commentary on insects, diseases, and curiosities division staff encounter on a week-to-week basis. Comments and questions about this report are welcome and can be sent to your respective Inspector.
I inspected some nurseries in Grant County last week. Red headed flea beetle was causing moderate damage on red and yellow twig dogwood, weigela, and various hydrangea varieties. I also observed two-spotted spider mites on hosta and ‘Jade Parade’ sand cherry, and spider mite damage on daylily. Leaf spot was present on ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangea and Botrytis was causing lesions on English ivy. The high temperatures we’ve been having over the last few weeks are quickly baking the moisture out of potted plant material so it’s important to make sure everything gets thoroughly watered. I hope the rains we had over the weekend in Northern Indiana provide a little relief.
A couple of weeks ago I grafted some queen cells from my best producing queen. I used one cell to re-queen a swarm I caught. I am still evaluating another swarm’s queen, so I left one queen in the cell builder. The third queen I used to make a small split from a strong hive. All three queens hatched, and everything was going smoothly until a couple of nights ago when my dog interrupted a skunk raiding my small split.
Fortunately, I got the dog back before she found out what the business end of the skunk looks like. Unfortunately, the skunk hoovered up about 2/3 -3/4 of the bees in that split. I still have the queen, but its numbers are pretty slim, and I knew I would have a robing issue if I didn’t get them some more bees, but being that it’s fair week here in Ripley County, I didn’t get them more bees. So today I caught the start of the robbing frenzy and shut it down before it got crazy. The only things I have in bloom that bees like are anise hyssop (although it is starting to fade), Joe Pye weed, a few button bush blooms, and mountain mint.
The more I observe mountain mint, the more impressed I am with it. It started blooming over two weeks ago and is now in full swing. In addition to being covered by honeybees, my small patch had a lot of bumble bees, thread waisted wasps, syrphid flies, and a golden digger wasp showing up while I was taking photos for this writeup.
