Lawn and Tree Pests

Bagworms

Description: Adult males are small, clear winged moths with a black, hairy body and a wingspread of about 1 inch. Adult females are wingless, have no functional legs, eyes, or antennae, and are almost maggotlike in appearance.
Life Cycle: As larvae grow, silk and fragments of the host plant foliage are added to the bag until it reaches 1 1/2 or 2 inches long. When larvae are mature they fasten the bag to a plant stem with silk. Pupation occurs in the bag in August and males emerge in late August and September.
Host: In Oklahoma the most common hosts are eastern red cedar, other junipers, and arborvitae. Other hosts sometimes damaged include pines, spruce, bald cypress, maple, boxelder, sycamore, willow, black locust, oaks, and roses.
Symptoms: Bagworm larvae damage their hosts by feeding on the foliage. Heavy infestations can completely defoliate small plants.

Webworms

Description: Fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea, is most commonly observed feeding in groups on the foliage of host plants from within a web constructed on branch terminals (Fig. 2). Webs are most prominent in late summer or early fall, but in outbreak years their webs are noticeable earlier in the summer. Adult moths are almost pure white and have a wingspread of about 1 1/4inches.
Life Cycle: Adults of the overwintering generation emerge during May or occasionally in late April. Egg laying occurs in late May and early June. Each female can lay 400 to 500 eggs in masses on the underside of leaves.
Hosts: The fall webworm has been recorded on at least 88 species of shade, fruit, and ornamental trees in the United States. The preferred hosts vary from one area to another. In Oklahoma, persimmon and pecan are most commonly infested and black walnut and hickory are also common hosts. Sycamore, birch, and redbud are often attacked in years of heavy infestations. Infestations on cottonwood, American elm, and bald cypress have been reported.
Damage: Damage is caused by the larvae feeding on the leaves. They rarely are heavy enough to defoliate trees except for young pecans and persimmons. On most forest and shade trees, the insect is detrimental mainly to the beauty of the host and is thus more of a nuisance than a threat to the health of the tree.

Scale

Description: Scale insects are often inconspicuous pests of many evergreen and deciduous plants. They can occur on leaves, twigs, branches or trunks. Their small size and general lack of mobility make them difficult to notice by the casual observer. Scales derive their name from the shell-like, protective covering they form over themselves. Scale insects are broken into two categories:
- Soft scales—generally secrete an attached, thin, waxy layer over themselves. The soft covering they secrete cannot be separated from the scale's body. Soft scales typically move between branches and leaves during their lifecycle. They also produce honeydew.
- Armored (hard) scales—use shed skins and wax that is unattached to their body to form their hard, shell-like cover. These covers can be separated from the scale's body. Hard scales typically do not move to leaves during their lifecycle and also do not produce honeydew.
Damage: Scale insects cause damage by removing vital plant fluids from their hosts using their sucking mouth parts. Leaf and needle stunting and yellowing, twig and branch dieback as well as plant death are possible depending on population levels. In some instances, scales weaken plants making them susceptible to damage from secondary pests such as borers or environmental extremes, which may ultimately kill the plant.

Grubworms

Description: White grubs, the larval stage of June beetles, are common lawn pests. They are off-white in color with a light brown head. Three pairs of legs are found close to the head of the 1 2 inch (3 3/4 cm) grub.
Damage: White grubs will feed on grass, grass roots, and farm and garden crops. They feed on potato tubers, but prefer fibrous roots of turf grass. The adult stage also feeds on flowers. Feeding by the white grub results in dead patches of turf that yellow and pull back like freshly laid sod or thinning patchy areas of turf that are dying for no apparent reason.
Prevention: A healthy lawn is the best protection against white grubs. A well-watered, fertilized, aerated lawn will provide resistance against white grub attack. Good root growth is helpful as the adults prefer to lay eggs in thin grass.

Fleas

Appearance:

Color: Dark reddish-brown
Legs: 6
Shape: Flat
Region: Found throughout the U.S.

Diet: Fleas are parasites that feed on the blood of any warm-blooded body. The most common species is the cat flea, which often feasts on cats, dogs and humans.
Habitat: Fleas can live on any warm-blooded animal, but seem to prefer to live on humans, cats, dogs, opossums, rats and other rodents. Fleas transport themselves on rodents and other mammals. Fleas can jump as high as 8 inches vertically and 16 inches horizontally.
Risks: Fleas are best known for spreading the Bubonic Plague. They also transmit the bacterial disease murine typhus to humans through infected rats. Their saliva is an allergen that can cause allergic reactions in pets and humans. Fleas can also transfer tapeworms and cause anemia in pets. Flea bites cause painful, itchy red bumps.

Ticks | American Dog Tick

Appearance:

Color: Chestnut brown with silvery-gray or creamy-white scutum
Legs: 8 (larva only have 6)
Shape: Flat, broad oval
Size: varies; around 1/4″
Region: Eastern U.S. & parts of the west coast

General Information: The American dog tick, known by some people as the wood tick, is one of the most widely distributed and common ticks in the eastern and central United States. Only adults of the American dog tick feed on people and their pets – records of nymphs from humans are rare. The ornate marking is on the scutum of the female, which on the male, extends over the entire back. Female ticks increase dramatically in size as they obtain their blood meal from a host animal. Fully engorged females may reach ½ inch in length and resemble a dark pinto bean. Male ticks do not change notably in size as they feed.
Habitat: American dog ticks are most numerous along roadsides, paths, marshy areas and trails in brushy woodlands or meadows with tall grass or weeds. People or their pets may bring these ticks from outdoors into the home, where they can survive for many days.
Threats: The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, is the primary vector of the causal agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the eastern United States and is also a vector for the agent of tularemia. This tick does not transmit Lyme disease spirochetes and recent studies have indicated that it is not a vector for the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

Ticks | Lone Star

Appearance:

Color: Reddish brown; females have distinctive white spot or “star” on the scutum.
Legs: 8 (larva only have 6)
Shape: Flat, broad oval Size: varies; females are 1/4″
Region: Southeastern U.S., Texas to S. New England.

General Information: The Lone Star tick is named from the conspicuous spot on the end of the scutum of the female tick. They are reddish brown in color and about 3-4 mm long; females are 6.35 mm (1/4”) long. Adults are active from April through mid-summer. Larvae are active in the late summer and early fall.
Habitat: Lone Star ticks are found mostly in woodlands with dense undergrowth and around animal resting areas.
Threats: The larvae do not carry disease, but the nymphal and adult stages can transmit the pathogens causing Monocytic Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and ‘Stari’ borreliosis. Lone Star ticks are notorious pests, and all stages are aggressive human biters. Lone star ticks have long mouthparts. Even with successful removal of mouthparts the cementing substance is left in the bite wound. This cement material can causing itching, skin irritation, and localized swelling immediately around the bite.

Mosquitos

Appearance:

Color: Varies; Pale brown with whitish stripes across abdomen
Legs: 6
Shape: Narrow oval
Size: ¼”-3/8” Region: Found throughout the U.S.

Diet: Female mosquitoes feed on plant nectar and blood; male mosquitoes feed exclusively on plant nectars. Because they need protein to reproduce, female mosquitoes pierce skin with their proboscis and suck blood. Mosquitoes are busiest at night and will fly up to 14 miles for a blood meal. They hunt for food by detecting body heat and carbon dioxide, the gas we breathe out.
Habitat: Mosquitoes breed in soft, moist soil or stagnant water sources such as storm drains, old tires, children’s wading pools and birdbaths.
Risks: Mosquitoes spread diseases such as West Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever.

Voles

Appearance

Color: brown or grey in color, but many color variations exist
Legs: 4
Shape: mouse like in appearance
Size: 6''- 8'' in length, and tail is less than 3'' long

General Information: Voles are commonly known as meadow or field mice, belong to the rodent family. The most widely distributed vole species is the meadow vole. Voles occupy areas with heavy ground cover, grasses, grass-like plants or litter. Man-made dwellings such as orchards, cultivated fields and windbreaks are favored. The vole is a compact rodent with a stocky body, short legs, and a short tail.
Habitat: Voles are rarely ever seen because they live primarily in tunnels and runways under the lawn surface. They construct numerous surface or subsurface burrows and tunnels (1" to 2" wide) in a relatively small area, which contain numerous adults and young. Voles are primarily herbivores and forage on grasses, flowers, vegetables, fruits, bulbs and roots (on occasion they will eat insects and snails). During the winter months voles do not hibernate, but instead make tunnels beneath the snow, in which they gnaw on shrubs and tree bark for nutrition. The life span of an average vole is short-lived, ranging from 2 to 16 months. They breed continuously throughout the year and can have 1 to 5 litters per year, with each litter producing 3 to 6 young.
Damage: Vole damage includes girdling and gnawing of trees, vegetable gardens destroyed by eating of highly nutritious roots, damage to lawns by extensive tunnel and runway systems, along with tearing up mulch in flowerbeds. There are some health concerns with voles. Voles are occasional carriers of tularemia, bubonic plague, and are hosts to numerous internal and external parasites, yet voles pose no major threat because of their infrequent contact with humans.

Gophers

Appearance:

Color: Brown fur
Legs: 4
Shape: Gophers are often mistaken for moles. Gophers do not have the huge spade-like feet like moles do, but they can certainly do as much, if not more damage.
Size: 6" - 10"

General Information: Pocket gophers, often called gophers, are burrowing rodents that get their name from the fur-lined, external cheek pouches, or pockets, they use for carrying food and nesting materials. Pocket gophers are well equipped for a digging, tunneling lifestyle with their powerfully built forequarters; large-clawed front paws; fine, short fur that doesn’t cake in wet soils; small eyes and ears; and highly sensitive facial whiskers that assist with moving about in the dark. A gopher’s lips also are unusually adapted for their lifestyle; they can close them behind their four large incisor teeth to keep dirt out of their mouths when using their teeth for digging.
Behavior: Pocket gophers live in a burrow system that can cover an area that is 200 to 2,000 square feet. The burrows are about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Feeding burrows usually are 6 to 12 inches below ground, and the nest and food storage chamber can be as deep as 6 feet. Gophers seal the openings to the burrow system with earthen plugs. Short, sloping lateral tunnels connect the main burrow system to the surface; gophers create these while pushing dirt to the surface to construct the main tunnel. Gophers don’t hibernate and are active year-round, although you might not see any fresh mounding. They also can be active at all hours of the day.
Identification: Mounds of fresh soil are the best sign of a gopher’s presence. Gophers form mounds as they dig tunnels and push the loose dirt to the surface. Typically mounds are crescent or horseshoe shaped when viewed from above. The hole, which is off to one side of the mound, usually is plugged. Mole mounds are sometimes mistaken for gopher mounds. Mole mounds, however, are more circular and have a plug in the middle that might not be distinct; in profile they are volcano-shaped. Unlike gophers, moles commonly burrow just beneath the surface, leaving a raised ridge to mark their path.
Habitat: One gopher can create several mounds in a day. In nonirrigated areas, mound building is most pronounced during spring or fall when the soil is moist and easy to dig. In irrigated areas such as lawns, flower beds, and gardens, digging conditions usually are optimal year round, and mounds can appear at any time. In snowy regions, gophers create burrows in the snow, resulting in long, earthen cores on the surface when the snow melts.
Damage: Pocket gophers often invade yards and gardens, feeding on many garden crops, ornamental plants, vines, shrubs, and trees. A single gopher moving down a garden row can inflict considerable damage in a very short time. Gophers also gnaw and damage plastic water lines and lawn sprinkler systems. Their tunnels can divert and carry off irrigation water, which leads to soil erosion. Mounds on lawns interfere with mowing equipment and ruin the aesthetics of well-kept turfgrass.

Moles

Appearance:

Color: short, soft gray-brown fur
Legs: 4
Shape:
Size: 5" - 7" in length

Physical Description: Their short, soft, gray-brown fur covers most of their bodies, leaving only their muzzles, feet and tails naked. They have large, shovel-shaped front feet, which are extremely useful for digging. They have no external eyes or ears. It's thought that poorly developed eyes beneath their fur and skin can detect light, but luckily they don't need to see much better than that, as they spend the majority of their lives underground.
Habitat and Tunnels: Eastern moles prefer to live in open woodland, meadows, fields and pastures. They can also be found in residential areas, especially in gardens with large lawns. These moles dig two different types of tunnel. One is a tunnel so shallow that the top of it leaves a long ridge in the earth. These shallow tunnels are used for foraging for prey. The second type of tunnel is more like a deep burrow and is the type that causes eastern moles to leave behind mole hills. It's in these tunnels that they live, nest and move from one place to another.
Diet: The two main foods that eastern moles eat are insect larvae and earthworms, both of which are abundant underground. However, they'll also eat any snail, insects or invertebrates they come across while digging tunnels; they may very occasionally consume some vegetation. These moles can consume anywhere between 25 percent and 100 percent of their total body weight every day.
Threats: Eastern moles have very few predators that can actually find and catch them, because they live much of their lives deep underground. However, when they're momentarily aboveground, predators such as red foxes, raccoons and black rat snakes might pose a threat. Perhaps their biggest predators are angry human gardeners, who object to having ridges and mole hills all over their lawns. What many gardeners don't know is that eastern moles are actually very good for aerating the soil and will eat pests such as beetle larvae, which would otherwise destroy the lawn when they reach maturity.