Turn away pests to regain control of pepper plants

Question: My peppers look horrible with curling leaves and brown tips. What is the cause and what can I use that is natural to obtain control?

Answer: Growing good pepper plants has been difficult this fall due to an assortment of pests. Often mites, thrips and whiteflies can be feeding on the same plants. These cause the leaf curl plus tips of new growths to pucker and turn brown. A control is needed or the plants eventually decline. All of these pests can be controlled with a natural insecticidal soap or neem oil spray found at your local garden center. Follow label directions and make repeat sprays as needed which could be once a week until control is obtained.

Q: In my community we have 30-year-old oak trees that are dropping little, round, tan puffballs. We haven't seen these before and are wondering what they could be.

A: Those brown, furry balls dropping from oak tree leaves are kind of cute but may also be alarming to residents. Maybe the drop is heavier this year or the wasps that cause the leaves to produce the growths, called wooly galls, have just found the trees.

Wooly galls form on many types of oaks but are most prevalent on the laurel and live oaks found locally. Small wasps appear to lay their eggs in the leaves during spring and the galls gradually develop, being most noticeable in late summer or fall. Their presence on the leaves may encourage an early leaf drop and the galls often slough off individually to accumulate on the ground. They cause little or no damage and can be ignored. Control would be too difficult.

Q: Do you feel renting a machine and aerating a residential lawn would be helpful if I plan to over-seed with a combination of winter rye and bermudagrass seed?

A: A good raking to remove old grass blades and surface debris is probably a better treatment before over-seeding with a winter grass than aerating that punches holes in the ground. If your soil is compacted, has nematodes or is hard to wet then aeration may be considered as an additional treatment to help all the turf growing as your lawn.

Ryegrass is the traditional seed for establishing a temporary lawn. You can select either annual or perennial ryegrass. Both give a good green lawn for the cooler months and then decline during spring. Only add the bermudagrass seed if you want to establish a new permanent lawn type. Many residents consider bermudagrass a weed when growing with St. Augustine, bahia or zoysia lawns. It is best not to mix these grasses.

Q: Our Gold Mound duranta plants are being eaten by small, white insects. We used a disease control product with no effects. Do you have any advice?

A: Most likely your duranta planting is now free of leaf spots and similar blotches but those juice-sucking whiteflies are going to continue feeding unless you switch to an insecticide. Natural products like insecticidal soap or horticultural oils can control these pests but you have to hit the under side of the leaves which can be difficult with these dense-growing shrubs.

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Turn away pests to regain control of pepper plants