pesticides

My friend Michael Janik, of Michael’s Apples, is a fruit tree expert. He sent out an April newsletter with tips on pest control and said I could share them.

As we celebrate Earth Day this April, let’s remember how important environmental stewardship is to the health of Lake Tahoe, and how important our individual actions are.

Seventeen Carson High School Career and Technical Education students competed at the Nevada State FFA Conference in Reno last month.

I have often written that I find the world of insects and arachnids fascinating. This comes from the person who as a child was terrified of spiders. However, my fear disappeared and my appreciation grew once I starting studying them. I thought I would finish out the year discussing a new critter, well new to me anyway.

A reader, Pat, wrote me: We’ve lived here in Carson City for the past 13 years and this is the first year we’ve experienced an issue with black widow spiders. The fact is we had no idea they were here. But a month or so ago, I found one inside our house.

The apple harvest is almost over. We have picked so many red delicious apples at our house, we don’t care there are still some on the tree. I had thought a freeze in late May had destroyed all the flowers. Surprise! The recent winds have blown down many of the apples remaining on the tree.

I just returned from a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota. While Mt Rushmore was impressive, the amount of dead trees in the otherwise beautiful forests was depressing. They were everywhere. In addition, there were huge slash piles stacked in the forest. It was ugly and sad to see the extent of the damage.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant greenhouse gas and it plays a major role in global warming and climate change. Organic carbon in the soil and plant biomass (plants and their debris) originates from atmospheric CO2.

We just completed National Pollinator Week, a designation that recognizes all that pollinators do for our food supply, environment and economy. Last year the Obama administration released a “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators” led by U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In the 1990s, new insecticides containing the active ingredient imidachloprid came on the market. They were easy for home gardeners to apply, reducing impacts on non-target organisms. They were effective against a variety of challenging insects including bronze birch borers and aphids.

Bee populations have been declining with the total number of managed honey bee colonies down from 5 million in the 1940s to 2.5 million in November 2015, according to the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

Here's the speech made Wednesday by Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell at the 2016 Chamber of Commerce State of the City address held at Gold Dust West:

Just when you thought your summer battles with insects were over, I have to remind you about insect infestations on houseplants. Your houseplants may be at risk if you recently brought outdoor container plants into the house. Usually containerized plants pick up hitchhiking insects while they are outdoors and these travelers start breeding when brought into a warm interior.

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of Nov. 2-8, 2015. Division Street will be closed between Fifth Street and King Street during daytime hours Monday through Friday due to road construction. Detours will be signed.

There are many definitions of the word “pest,” and personal perceptions of pests can often be very different. A pest might be annoying (ants), damaging to plants (rabbits), a health concern (ticks) or a cause for fear (black widow spiders). However, relatively few pests cause significant injury to plants, so pesticides are rarely needed.

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection has approximately $800,000 in federal funding available to provide grant assistance for projects that prevent or control nonpoint source water pollution, the leading cause of water quality impairment in Nevada.

Recently, I saw a woman in a bucket on a crane attached to a truck spraying her elm trees. She wore no protective gear while spraying. A man, also without protective gear, stood just below her. Since he was looking up as she sprayed insecticide over his head, drift rained down onto his face and into his eyes.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, in partnership with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, is offering a free workshop Nov. 13 to train people throughout the state how to properly handle and use pesticides. The workshop is meant for certified applicators and people who regularly handle pesticides as part of their jobs, such as farmers, ranchers, park employees and groundskeepers.

State agriculture scientists say northern Nevadans can expect to see more moths over next couple of months. The Nevada Department of Agriculture entomology laboratory has noted an uptick in inquiries about the number of moths flying around. The moths are the adults of the army cutworm, and an insect native to Nevada.

“There were very high populations of the larvae in several areas of the West this year, including Nevada,” said Entomologist Jeff Knight. “We are now seeing the adults from those larvae.”

Grab a rake, a broom, a pair of work gloves and be prepared to apply some elbow grease, Carson City's annual spring cleanup week begins April 15.

Whether you're looking to haul junk from the basement to the landfill, are a senior and need help getting rid of debris, or maybe you need to get rid of old cans of paint, Carson City has several programs available.

Here's a list provided by the city of what's available:

Services for legendary radio commentator Travus T. Hipp will be held this Saturday, May 26, in Silver City. Hipp died early Friday morning, May 18, at his Silver City home. He was 75, as old as the Golden Gate Bridge in his beloved San Francisco.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 26, in Silver City. Gathering, gnoshing and remembering will begin at the Silver City Community Center, 385 High Street, at 10:00 a.m. Food and refreshments will be provided. Those who wish may bring more.

Our mild winter has caused many feral honeybee colonies to begin swarming earlier this year.

Swarming is the method that honey bee colonies use to reproduce. A mature overwintered colony splits into two or more colonies by swarming. A new honey bee colony is formed when the mother queen leaves the old hive with roughly 60% of the worker bees. The mother queen will leave the old hive for her daughter to rule.

More than $1 million in federal funding grants is available through the Nevada Division of Environmental protection for projects that prevent or control non-point water pollution, the leading cause of poor water quality in Nevada.

Nonpoint source water pollution occurs when rain, snowmelt and irrigation water flows over developed or disturbed land, carrying with it contaminants including oil, sediment, pesticides, bacteria and nutrients. This contaminated water makes its way into Nevada’s waterways either directly or through storm drains.

When it comes to spring cleaning, out with the old and pare down the new seems to be the order of the times.