Browse Ants, Termites, Lice and Other Pests Stories - Page 5

Fruit flies can be a problem year-round, but are especially common during late summer and fall because they are attracted to ripe or fermenting fruits and vegetables. The best way to avoid problems with fruit flies is to eliminate sources of attraction.

Fall is the best time to control fire ants, so start next year’s battle plan now. Fire ant colonies have been growing all summer and will have reached their peak size by the end of September. It is best to attack these colonies before cooler weather sends them deep into the ground.

Controlling coyotes and clearing trees will top the list of popular topics at the Agroforestry and Wildlife Field Day on Thursday, Sept. 17, at the University of Georgia’s Westbrook Research Farm in Griffin, Georgia.

Maxwell Lamptey is visiting America, specifically Griffin, Georgia, in the hopes of learning new methods to fight aflatoxin — a carcinogen produced by soil fungus that can grow on peanuts — in his home country of Ghana.

Every summer, Georgians head to the mountains and forests to escape the heat. Many return home with a few unintended souvenirs—ticks.

A University of Georgia entomologist is asking Georgians to help track an insect that loves to stowaway in homes and has the potential to hurt the state’s cotton and blueberry crops. The brown marmorated stink bug, a native of Asia, was first spotted in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1998 and has since been found in 42 states and two Canadian provinces, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To date, it is classified as a nuisance pest in Georgia, but could quickly become an agricultural pest, too.

Pesticides can be helpful in controlling insects and diseases, but there are chemicals that should be handled with care. To educate pesticide users, University of Georgia Extension has planned pesticide safety and handling classes in Albany, Savannah and Perry this February and March.

As Georgia’s mosquito season draws to a close, mosquito control professionals are looking back, evaluating the season and planning for the challenges they will face next spring.

A widespread soybean pest the past five years, the kudzu bug population in Georgia is much lower this growing season.

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia at the University of Georgia will host the 22nd annual Insect-ival! Family Festival on Sept. 13 from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Visitor Center and Conservatory at the garden in Athens.