Abstract

Orton, D. A. 1975. Controlling ornamental pests. American Nurseryman 141(1): 10-11, 124.

Insecticide sprays are commonly timed to coincide with the period or periods in a particular insects’ developmental cycle when it is most vulnerable. Year-to-year temperature variations may make calendar spray timing data collected one year inaccurate for some other years in the same geographic area. If insects’ developmental cycles and blooming dates of ornamental plants are similarly affected by temperature variations, a valid correlation can be drawn, and the blossoming times of the plants can be used as accurate indicators of the times when the particular insects are most vulnerable to insecticide applications. To test these correlations, the life cycle of the eastern spruce gall aphid, Adelges abietis, was chosen. A valid correlation between blooming stages of the ornamental shrub Magnolia soulangiana and spring initiation of egg laying by eastern spruce gall aphid seems to be apparent. Similar correlations are probably valid for other ornamental pests.

• © 1975, International Society of Arboriculture. All rights reserved.