INTERESTING FACTS & HELPFUL TIPS

Most gardeners know that aphids are very tiny, defenseless, although troublesome, insects that feed on plants with their needle-like beaks which they use to puncture soft plant tissue and suck plant juices. As these aphids feed, they secrete a sweet, sticky substance known as honeydew, to which ants are highly attracted to as a food source. This is why, when we see ants on plants, there will almost always be aphids there feeding. But a most interesting ant/aphid phenomenon that occurs in nature, is the symbiotic relationship between the Cornfield ant and the Corn Root and Strawberry Root aphids.

Cornfield ants are generally small, light brown to black in color and usually nest in damp areas. They are often found beneath moist rotting wood in shaded woodlands but can also be found in sunny, open areas under logs, stones or pavement. They can be found throughout most of the United States. This ant gets its name because of its close association with the Corn Root Aphid, but these ants are also referred to as Moisture Ants, because of their nesting habits.

In order for the Cornfield ant to remain well supplied in honeydew, this ant with almost human-like intelligence will foster these aphids, ward off any of their enemies and over winter their eggs until Spring arrival. In the case of the Corn Root aphid, Cornfield ants will collect aphid eggs in the Fall, over winter them in their nests, then in the Spring, carry the young to smartweed and grass roots where the young obtain nourishment. These young nymphs grow to become wingless, females called stem mothers that can produce live young without mating. These stem mothers raise 2-3 generations on the host plant, after which the ant returns to carry the aphids to young corn roots where the aphids breed another 10-20 generations. Sometimes, winged females may develop, that are capable to fly off to different host plants, these winged females are seized by the ants and carried back down into their ant nests. However some do get away and fly off to other plants to start new colonies. The Corn Root Aphid also infests the roots of other plants, such as Aster, Chrysanthemum, Cosmos, Dahlia, Primrose and Zinnia, to name a few.

In the case of the Strawberry Root aphid, newly hatched young nymphs that over wintered as eggs on strawberry foliage and stems, can be found feeding on the new foliage in early Spring. Cornfield ants will find them and carry them to the roots of the strawberry plant, where the aphids will keep the ants well supplied with honeydew. There will be many generations produced and some winged forms will develop which when Fall arrives will fly to the foliage, produce both males and females, who will mate and lay over wintering eggs on the leaves to begin the cycle over again.

Although some might say that the ant is the smart one, the aphid is equally as smart. First of all, what does the aphid care whether the ant wants to eat its excrement, what are they going to do with it? Second, the aphid knows a "sugar daddy" when he sees one and third, aphids produce both eggs and living young for a good reason. During the warm season they give birth to living young, depending on the species of aphid, there may be 20 or more generations a season with each female producing between 50-100 nymphs each season. This remarkable rate of reproduction, contributes to the damage that aphids can cause. As cold weather approaches, the aphids somehow know that it is time to produce eggs, rather that living offspring. They produce an entire group of winged males and females. This last group of female aphids fly back to the same type of plant from which their ancestors came and there produce a final generation of wingless females. These wingless females will mate with the winged males and lay a final set of eggs for over wintering. They will lay from one to four eggs on the host plant and die. These eggs will over winter on the plant, (or in the case of the Cornfield Aphid, the eggs will be gathered by the ants and over wintered in the ants nest.) These eggs will hatch in the Spring and the cycle will start all over again.

I would say the aphids are pretty smart, just as smart as the ant, wouldn't you?

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Helpful Tips

Bark Mulch - How much?

There are four main reasons to use bark mulch: it looks good, it keeps weeds down, it retains ground moisture and it keeps plant roots cool. However, there is a limit as to how much bark to use before you defeat the intended purpose. Many a home owner (and landscaper as well) think that more is better. Actually 2"-3" on the bed surface is sufficient. Never mulch heavily around the trunks of trees and shrubs, mulching too heavily around the trunks of trees and shrubs causes the trunks to be kept constantly moist (just as if you had planted them too deep), this invites the invasion of disease and insects.

How do you determine how much bark to buy and use? Take a rough measurement of the area to be covered, Length by Width and Depth in inches. Multiply L x W x D (D in decimal fraction) divide by 27 = cubic yards.

(see Charts & Formulas at the Home page for other helpful formulas)

Some disadvantages of bark are, that it may need to be replenished ever 2-3 years, bark may rob the plants of nitrogen if it is too freshly cut, it may raise the pH of the soil slightly and it can be difficult to clean the beds of leaves in the Fall without loosing some bark in the process.

An excellent alternative to bark mulch are groundcovers. Once established, they have all the positive advantages of bark and not as many of the disadvantages.

Spraying your plants.

When spraying herbicides, insecticides, growth retardants and deer & rabbit repellents, always add a little liquid dish soap to the mix at a rate of 2-3 drops per gallon of water. The dish soap acts as a spreader sticker and improves the adhesion of the spray to the plant surface. It leaves a film on the plant surface that allows the material in the spray to be retained on the plant surface for a longer period of time.

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Spent flowers and ‘Dead-heading’

Did I say Dead-Head? If you are a gardener you’ll always hear this phrase, but you don’t have to follow the Grateful Dead around the country to do it. Dead-heading is the removal of spent flowers from your plants to encourage new growth and a continuation of new flower buds. Should you dead-head? By all means - it is the proper thing to do. Folks that grow roses know the importance of this practice. Is it feasible to do? - not always. Dead-heading your perennial flowers is the ultimate devotion to your flower bed, but practically speaking, most of us do not have the time or the ambition to do it. You don’t have to do it, it does extend your flowering time but if you have a whole lot of flowering plants it could be very time consuming and it doesn’t hurt your plant if you don’t do it. So you can be a dead-header if you want to or you cannot.

Did you know that you should dead-head your rhododendrons when they are finished blooming? If you carefully pinch off the spent flower crowns it will encourage the new growth shoots to develop more quickly (those will produce the flower buds for next season.) But - if you have a really big rhododendron, you will have literally hundreds of spent flowers to pinch off and they are really sticky and gummy and hard to handle... and you have to be really careful not to break off the old flower stem too far down or you will break off all of the area where your new growth shoots will come from. My advise - It’s a nice thing to do on small to moderate sized plants, but don’t do it unless you have nothing better to do or unless you are really fussy about the appearance of your plant. Rhododendrons will grow and bloom whether you dead-head or not.

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