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Black and yellow syrphid flies feeding on rose

Syrphid Flies: Annoying but Helpful Impostors

  Is it a bee? Is it a wasp? No, it’s a syrphid fly, and they are rather abundant this year. We’ve had several questions come into our offices about them. While at a cookout with my family this weekend, we got to experience dozens of them flying around and occasionally landing on us. Syrphid...
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Compost Tea: Miracle Product or Snake Oil

Compost Tea- Miracle Product or Snake Oil?

  I love compost. If you have ever sat in one of my classes, you will know that 1) Soil tests can be so important, 2) Always read and follow your pesticides labels (and are those poisons really necessary?), and 3) I love compost! Compost is derived from once-living organisms, think weeds or...
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broccoli plants in a mulched garden

Planting a Fall Vegetable Garden

Planting a vegetable garden doesn’t just have to occur in the spring. Many of the vegetables that we grow in the spring can be also planted in late summer or early fall. By the time summer rolls around many of our cool season plants that were planted in the spring are past their prime. They become...
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yellow lab

Dog Gone Lawn

It never fails. Every time I present a topic on lawns this question arises, “How do you prevent lawn damage if you have dogs?” Turns out, I really enjoy this question! Being a dog owner to two yellow labs for almost nine years, I have had my fair share of ragged lawns and muddy paw prints. Let’s...
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Blossom End Rot

Blossom end rot is the scourge of many tomato growers. In addition to tomatoes, it can also be found in peppers, eggplant as well as squash and watermelons. When it comes to tomatoes, it is most commonly seen on larger fruited varieties, with long-fruited varieties (Roma type) being more...
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chiggar

The Unseen Menace...Chiggers!

How can something so small cause so much agony? This thought, along with several other expletives ran through my mind as I clicked from webpage to webpage searching for a cure to my constant itching. What was the source of my anguish? Chiggers! My entire body (mostly the more private parts) was...
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japanese beetle

Living with Japanese Beetles

It's about that time of year, time for Japanese beetles... Japanese beetles are one of the most destructive ornamental pests we have in Illinois. They were first discovered in the United States in 1916 in New Jersey and have been making their way across the U.S. since then. The adults are about a...
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