- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Purple martin's like to live around people, and are entertaining to watch.

Today we're going to check in on some.

Also, scales can be a major insect pest.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Mary Schmidt.

Mary is the Backyard Wildlife Center Curator here at Lichterman Nature Center.

And Amy Dismukes will be joining me later.

Hi, Mary.

- Hey, Chris.

- It's always good to see you.

- Great to see you too.

Happy to have you here today.

- Yes, thank you for inviting us to be here today.

I am so excited.

- Yes, this is gonna be a really fun day.

- This is gonna be fun.

So, what are we gonna be talking about today?

- So, we're at our purple martin colony.

Now usually this colony is 10 to 15 feet up in the air.

But we brought it down because we're gonna check it today.

We're gonna open up these gourds and see what's happening inside.

- Cool, let's do it.

- Alright.

- I can't wait, I can't wait.

- Okay, so the first thing is when we're checking the gourds, never look in the hole.

If there's still a bird in there, it's coming out right at your eye.

So we've got nice access on the side, and so we're just gonna open this side up and, sure enough, we've got something in there.

- Oh, how about that?

So, do we have to record what we find?

- Sure, so we check our gourds every five to seven days.

We record what's in there, if there's eggs or young, and then we age the youngs, which I'm gonna have you help me do right now.

- Okay, okay.

- So, I'm gonna pull one of the birds out.

- Nice.

- A lot of times you'll hear not to touch baby birds because the parents will abandon them.

- Wow, look at that.

- But, the birds don't have a great sense of smell, not like we have a developed sense of smell.

So they actually can't smell you on the babies, so they're not gonna abandon the nest if you touch them.

Best thing is always to put them back in the nest.

But what we can do with these is we can actually age them.

- How about that?

- So it looks like we have a nine-day-old.

- Nine, okay.

Nice.

- And then in here, he's got a total of five nine-day-old young.

Wanna look at another one?

- Yeah, let's do that.

That is so cool to see though.

- Yeah.

So in this one, it's a little bit different.

- I think that is so cool.

Can I hold that?

- Sure.

- Wow, look at that.

- We've got a total of four eggs in here.

What's unique about purple martins is they're only laying one egg at sunrise, and they don't start incubating until the next to last egg.

I know, there's a lot of research on purple martins for us to know that, but it's really good because then we know when they're gonna hatch, and when they're gonna leave the gourds as well.

- So, at sunrise?

- Yes, always at sunrise.

So when we check them, we know that one egg had just been laid that morning.

So I've got one more I'd like to show you, - Okay, let's look at it.

- One more gourd I'd like to check with you.

- Alright.

- Right around this way.

[birds chirping] - Okay, so same thing, you don't wanna look inside.

And as we're looking at these, you probably notice some of them look a little bit different.

And the reason is there's different predator guards.

One of the most important thing if you're gonna have a purple martin colony is to make sure you protect it.

And the best way to do that is adding predator guards.

So we've got predator guards for ground predators like raccoons and snakes.

This is just bird netting.

If you put that around there, snakes can't get through it.

So we've actually caught a few snakes trying to get in the colony.

- So they just get tangled in it.

- Exactly.

You'll see some bars overhanging.

- Yeah I wondered about that.

- Yeah, so these are for aerial predators, things like hawks and owls.

They can stick their foot right there and grab a bird or a young bird.

So these actually give them a little bit of space so the birds can't get that close to the entrance.

- And then lastly, the entrance holes.

The entrance holes are to prevent starlings and sometimes house sparrows from getting into your gourds.

- Got, it, okay, 'cause they'll go in there and try to make nests or something like that?

- Exactly.

And they will kill the young birds, and sometimes even the adults.

- Okay, let me ask you about this one.

- Sure, so this is really interesting.

So this colony has been here for over 10 years, and when we first started we had four active nests, and we had gourds all like this.

Well, unfortunately, these ones, like I talked about, were predators were able to get in there.

And so we started retrofitting them over the last 10 years, slowly changing and adding predator guards.

Chris, this year we have 33 active nests.

We have over 120 eggs.

Some of them have already hatched, but we had over 120 eggs this year.

- So that's the most that you all ever had?

- It is.

- Oh, how about that.

- This is the most for our colony.

- Nice.

- So, check out this one.

- Oh my gosh, look at that.

- So this is just a one-day-old.

- Look at that!

- This one just hatched yesterday.

- This is one-day, oh my goodness.

How about that?

I've never seen one that small before.

It's one-day-old.

- And he's got three other siblings in there as well.

- Oh my goodness.

- So, one of the reasons that we check the purple martin gourds, 'cause a lot of people think, "Well, aren't you bothering the birds?

Aren't they going to abandon the nest?"

And with all the research that's been done, colonies that are monitored or checked on a regular basis are more successful, or they fledge, more young birds leave the nest than ones that aren't monitored.

We can find out things like predation, so predators, starlings or house sparrows if they're getting into our nests.

If we have something like nest mites or parasites, those are things that by checking it we can find and address those problems before they become an issue.

- So, how often do you check?

- So we are checking our gourds every five to seven days.

At around day 26 or 27, the birds are able to fledge, or leave the gourd or leave the nest.

But, sometimes if they get spooked a few days before that, they might leave the nest early before they're able to fly.

And so by putting a plug in it that has a long string that we can pull out once the gourd's at the top, those birds aren't gonna fly, come out of the nest a couple days early.

- Okay, so when do they start flying?

- So really they're gonna start flying around day 26 or day 27, and that's when they're gonna leave the nest, and that's it.

They don't return back to the nest.

- Wow, and that's it?

- That's it.

- So they probably don't like that we are here right now, do they?

- They probably don't understand - Are they bothered by it a little bit.

- That we're trying to help the colony.

But as soon as we put it back up, they're going back in, feeding their young, incubating eggs if they still have eggs.

- Okay, got it.

So let me ask you this, and I know you talked about this before, so, what do they eat?

- Great question.

Purple martins are insectivores.

- Insectivores, got it.

- They're only eating insects, and they're only eating flying insects.

Almost everything they do is in the air, even getting water.

If you watch purple martins, they'll fly really low over water and just dip their mouths in - I've seen that.

- And get a little bit of water.

They're also catching insects as the insects are flying as well.

- So, good mosquito control, maybe?

- Well, I don't know how many mosquitoes they're eating.

They're definitely eating a lot of insects, but a lot of times they're going for big bugs.

- Big bugs.

- Big payoff 'cause they've got young they've gotta feed.

It's not to say they won't eat mosquitoes, but they're looking for the best payoff for 'em.

- Okay, what about survival rate?

How long do they live?

- That's a great question.

So, you know, for any young bird the first year is always hard.

For these birds, they're migrating all the way down to say Brazil.

- Really, I didn't know that.

- And then coming back again around late February.

So, that's really tough for a first-year bird.

So first-year survival rate for most birds isn't very high.

If they can survive their first year, sometimes they can live to be seven or eight-years-old.

- Oh, that's pretty good.

- Those same birds are gonna be coming back to the same colony.

They come back to the same colony year after year.

- So, they know how to do that?

- Yeah, so if you attract purple martins, if you have a colony, it's important to maintain that co lony because the same birds are coming back to use it every year.

- Every year.

- Every year.

- So is it best to have gourds like this, or... - So, you have options.

- There are some others?

- Yeah, so I like the gourds.

I definitely want something that you can open to check and also be able to take down and clean at the end of the season.

But there are other styles.

There are apartment or condo styles.

As long as you can open those and they have predator guards on 'em, you're good to go with those as well.

- Yeah, predator guards, very important.

- Predator guards, really important.

Can't say enough about those.

- How about that?

I think it's so neat that we get a chance to do this.

- Absolutely.

- And, of course, they're just flying around us.

- They are.

- Like, "What you doing here?"

- The sound is great too.

- I like it.

- And they're really fun to watch.

- I think it's good.

Well, Mary, we thank you so much for this.

This is actually pretty cool.

- Yeah, thanks for coming out.

- Thank you much, thank you.

[upbeat country music] Look what we have here, this is slime mold.

Some people call it dog vomit.

It actually feeds on decaying organic material.

So it's feeding on this mulch that's around this tree.

You usually see slime mold when you have wet conditions.

So right after a rain, in about a week or so, you'll probably see slime mold.

Here's the thing about slime mold, it is not harmful to plants, to people, to the environment.

It actually lasts for about a week or two, and then it'll go away.

If you wanna get rid of it, just a couple things you can do.

Get a rake, just rake it out.

Or get a scoop and just scoop it out.

You don't have to worry about spraying a fungicide or anything like that.

So, again, slime mold, also known as dog vomit.

Pretty cool.

[upbeat country music] Alright, Amy, let's talk about scales.

Specifically the difference between soft scales and hard scales.

Ew, make your skin crawl?

- First off, this is one of my favorite programs to give, by the way.

- Good, good.

- Because by the time I'm finished, everybody in the audience is doing this.

[Chris laughs] Or either this.

- They're terrified?

- And I think I've said something really horrible.

But, yes, so scale insects.

Scale are, most people don't kn ow what scale are, first off.

There's a reason for that, they're teeny tiny.

They're very inconspicuous.

They're probably one of the most destructive insects in the landscape because of that.

But, there are soft scales and there are hard scales.

Soft scales are different in that, I guess I could try to say this, soft scales, they both feed on sap.

They're phloem feeders, is what we call them.

Along with many other insects like aphids and mealybugs.

But, there's a difference.

Soft scale actually emit honeydew, - That's right.

- Just like aphids do.

Whereas the hard scale don't.

That actually makes them much more difficult to control.

- That's right.

- Because they feed a little bit differently.

So, in saying that, we'll go ahead and jump into that if it's okay.

These guys right here, these euonymus scale, which is one of the hard scales, and you guys can actually see it is pretty covered.

- Yeah, I'm very familiar with that 'cause I had euonymus scale at home.

- This is a major pest.

- It is.

- And then we also have the white peach scale.

And, despite its name, the white peach scale does not occur just on peaches.

This guy, this is actually on laurel because- - Wow.

- Yeah, laurel's in the peach family in the Prunus.

We forget about that one as well.

But, the reason they're difficult to control is the hard scale is actually feeding right on the outside of the phloem.

So what insecticides we'd normally use to control are not gonna control it well.

Maybe a little bit of control, but not a lot.

So that brings us to the next step on how to actually take care of those guys.

So, I guess, in treatment, that is the difference.

We have to use a systemic, or can use a systemic with our soft scale, which would be something like imidacloprid, dinotefuran.

But as we know, again, relating ba ck to our pollinators, there are specific times of the year that we do that, and specific times we don't.

We do not use systemic neonicotinoids on flowering plants, the extended versions of those.

There are some shorter lived products that have a much shorter shelf life, so we're out of the system of the plant by the time we have blooms.

- Good.

- But, as for our hard scale, this is where it gets really crazy.

- It's tough.

- These guys we actually have to attack at the juvenile stage.

So, scales, what most folks don't realize and why they're also very inconspicuous, is they lose their legs once they start feeding, and they blend into the plant.

- So they camouflage well.

- So they really do camouflage.

That just kind of explains, again, it's really, really difficult.

- It's really hard.

- So these guys, because they're not feeding right in the phloem, that insecticide might get them just a little bit if we use a systemic, but it won't get good total control.

And we want control of the hard scale because unlike soft scale, it can produce multiple generations a year dependent on the weather.

Now, what's the weather like here?

- Hot, humid.

- There we go.

We have high temperatures, humidity.

That's perfect breeding ground - Perfect.

- For these folks.

- Perfect.

- Now, if we were up north, you know, probably one generation it's gonna freeze it out, but not here.

- Yeah, euonymous scale here in the Memphis area - It's crazy.

- We're looking at three generations.

- Three minimum is usually what they say.

But, what we normally do with this, I tell people, let's start in this spring really early, get some nice double-sided sticky tape, and we're gonna trap those crawlers.

When they begin to hatch in the spring is how you control hard scale.

We hit the crawlers with an oil spray.

We can actually use a juvenile retardant spray, a growth regulator, something like Talus.

But, the other thing that we can do is actually prune them off when we have a lot of tissue that's infected.

- Which is what I do.

- Yes, that is usually the step with euonymus scale because they get so out of hand very, very quickly with our area here.

Trying to think about the other differences.

I guess one of the differences, now we do have some nice samples here of these very infested hard scale plants.

[Chris laughs] But one other difference, hard scale is much smaller than the soft scale.

It's much more inconspicuous.

Soft scale often will look like, I've compared, let's say, the Florida wax scale.

When this guy actually develops on the branches, it looks like little wads of bubblegum.

- Okay, a different way to look at that.

- Oak lecanium scales will layer itself on a branch of an oak, a willow oak or something, and it looks like little marbles la id on top of each other.

Now, here's the other big difference in our scale insects, soft scale doesn't have armor.

So when you open that scale up, you're pulling the whole insect off of the plant.

Very likely, you may see some eggs under there.

- Sure you will.

- But, hard scale, it actually has an armor that lifts off.

One of the other reasons it is so incredibly difficult to control.

That armor is like a raincoat.

- It's no fair.

- Nope, nuh uh.

- No fair.

- They are just built for success, it kind of seems to be what it is.

But I think also it's kind of one of those, they take out the weakers.

So these guys really don't build up a whole lot until we might have some other plant stressors.

- Wow.

- Lots.

- Lots.

- There's so much.

- Going back to the soft scales, now you talked about the honeydew.

- Okay, let's talk about honeydew a little bit.

- Produces, or helps to produce.

- This is that stuff right here called sooty mold.

Sooty mold, I always tell folks when they say, "What?"

I say, "You know the cars you see driving around in the summertime."

- I say the same thing - "That are covered, just the tops."

- Just the tops.

- "And maybe the trunk and the hood are black, but it's a silver car, that is sooty mold."

- Sooty mold.

- That happens when you park under a tree that has a sap sucker, we'll call it, infestation, and that can include many of the bugs, specifically soft scale as well.

But what's happening is these guys are voracious feeders of sap.

And we know that sap has carbohydrates and sugars in it, and that's why we call it honeydew.

- Honeydew.

- It's sweet and it's sticky.

So these little fellas are feeding on sap, and what their bodies cannot ingest comes out in the liquid form.

As our friend David Cook in Davidson County says, "What goes in liquid comes out liquid.

What goes in solid comes out solid."

This applies for insects as well.

So, I always like to tell people as well, "If you've ever been walking under a tree and you get dripped on and it's not raining," - And it's not raining, I say the same thing.

- "You've been pooped on by a sap sucker."

- That's right.

- So, the next step on that, now it's excellent, obviously, if we can recognize that honeydew and we see those shiny spots.

But if we don't, we may begin to have what we call sooty mold begin to develop on this honeydew.

So the honeydew is actually a great media, I guess we'll call it.

It's sticky.

- Sticky.

- So these mold spores that are just blowing around in the air, normal.

Not pathogenic to plants, not really pathogenic to us, they're able to stick to this honeydew because the honeydew is sweet, it sporulates, and is able to grow.

It's a food source right there, and it sticks to it.

- Honeydew.

- Honeydew brings on sooty mold.

Sooty mold ruins fences, cars, and patios.

- And patios.

- So we can actually stop this by recognizing that one thing.

- Good stuff, Amy.

We appreciate that.

- Absolutely.

- Honeydew.

- Honeydew.

- Sooty mold.

- It is not the honey do-list.

- Yeah, it's not the honey do-list.

- Nope, it's the bad one.

- Not the honey-do.

Thanks Amy.

- You got it.

- Good stuff.

[upbeat country music] - We have an infestation of mealybugs on our mandevillas here.

We're gonna spray them with malathion.

Malathion is an insecticide that's labeled for use on mealybugs.

According to the label, for mealybug control, one tablespoon is recommended per gallon of water.

So I had to do some math.

This is a a little over 12 ounces, that's about 1/10 of a gallon.

a tenth of a tablespoon is equal to about 1.4 milliliters.

I actually have a measuring spoon which is 1.25 milliliters.

So I'm gonna put a little less than my 12.8 ounces in here to make it match by 1.25 milliliters.

So, you know, you gotta figure all that out.

It's so very important to follow the label instructions.

So what I'm gonna do, fill this up about half-full.

Now I'm going to try to get my 1.25 milliliters of malathion in here.

I'm going to shake it up, and then I'm gonna top it off with water.

Okay, got that.

And I'm gonna shake it up again.

Okay, and see, I got some on my hand.

It leaked a little bit, that's why you wear rubber gloves.

Very, very important.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, here's our Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Ready.

- These are great questions.

Alright, here's our first viewer email.

It's interesting, right?

"I planted two Tonto crape my rtles on April 1st this year.

"It is June, and they still have not started "to grow any leaves.

"Is there something I should do?

"They're both about four-feet tall "and have several stems that are branching out at the top.

"I followed the planting directions "and have been watering them regularly.

"I peeled the bark back in several places "and it's bright green, so the trees are not dead.

Should I expect anything from them this year?"

And this is Todd from Mayodan, North Carolina.

So, Todd has actually put in a lot of work.

He knows to water them, he's been following the directions.

He peeled the bark back.

- I'm glad he said that.

- See, that's good.

So there's green tissue.

- Right.

What is the problem though, you think?

What could potentially be the problem, Jessie?

- I'm thinking they were just planted a little too late.

In general, you wanna plant your shrubs and trees in the fall.

So I'm thinking maybe he just got these started a little bit late, and they need more time.

And as long as he's doing the scratch test and it's green under there, just keep just waiting on 'em.

I think they'll be okay.

- What do you think?

- Give it some more time and you should start to see some leaves develop.

- Yeah, I think you just have to be patient, right?

April the first, I mean, - It's not that long.

- It's not that long ago.

So just give 'em a little time.

I'm sure with the warm weather there in North Carolina, yeah, it'll take off pretty quick for him.

- Just keep watering it.

- Keep watering it.

Maybe it came with fertilizer, you know, depending on the gallon container that it was in, they're usually already fertilized, so that's probably already taken care of.

Just keep it watered, keep checking on it, warmer temperatures, I think it'll be fine.

I think it'll be good, so thank you, Todd.

Yeah, you've done a lot of homework on that, so we appreciate that.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"Can I cut my water lilies that are turning yellow without hurting them?"

And this is Deborah.

So what do y'all think about that one?

- Well, I think like we were talking about, once a leaf turns yellow it's not really feeding the plant anymore.

So you can get rid of that without really damaging the plant.

- Agree with that?

- I agree, 100%.

- Yeah, go ahead and cut that back.

For plant health sake, right?

And then something else I just thought about, water quality.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah, that's real important, water quality.

- Because as those are breaking down, they're getting into your water system as well, build up from the bottom, all that stuff breaking down, cause more oxygen, sometimes can affect your aquatic life to fish, turtles, things like that.

So, I would definitely take 'em off.

- I would take 'em off, right.

'Cause you definitely don't wanna hurt that aquatic life that you have down there with the bacteria and things like that.

So yeah, go ahead and cut those off, Deborah.

I think that'll help you out.

Because y'all have a lot of water lilies here, don't you?

- We have American lotus, which is a native plant.

Looks very similar to lilies, but a slightly different plant.

- Okay, got it.

Alright, so thank you Ms. Deborah for that question.

We appreciate that.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

Oh, y'all, this is a good one, alright.

"So, last year I tried growing yellow neck squash "in a large pot.

"They did really well until some big ugly bugs attacked.

"They bored out the stem near the ground.

"How can I stop the bugs that bored out the stem "of my squash plants?

I don't use pesticides."

So, we gotta remember that.

This is Constance from Dallas, Texas.

So, Mary, what do we think that the culprit is?

Who is that culprit?

- Okay, so I think the culprit is a squash vine borer.

- Yes it is.

- Which is actually a moth.

- It's a moth.

- But it looks like a wasp.

- It does, it definitely does.

- It's actually a moth.

And what's happening is the larva are boring into the stem.

So it's a challenging one, but there are some things that you can do to try to prevent that from happening.

- Right, so it's definitely a challenge because as they're boring into the stem, they're disrupting the flow of water, right?

To the upper canopy of the plant, so the plant collapses, or it'll collapse.

- And once they're in that vine, it's almost too late.

- It's almost too late.

So there's a couple things you can do, right?

So if you can get a knife, you know, razor blade or something, you can actually cut the stem, see if you can find it.

- Yep, but you gotta be careful with that too.

- You gotta be careful, you gotta be careful with it.

But if you can find it, get it out, of course, kill it.

- Surgery.

- And you can actually mound up soil around that wounded area in a hope that it will produce roots.

That's one way.

The old timers that I know, guess what they do, they wrap aluminum foil around the stem of the plant.

- That prevents 'em from getting in.

- That's interesting.

- Prevents 'em from getting in, and from the moth laying the egg on it.

- You're right.

- So, there's something else you can do too.

I know some people that dust spinosad.

Spinosad is a soil bacterium that's considered to be a green product, safe.

Read and follow the label on that if you use it, that's another method.

And finally, look for resistant varieties.

Or, we talked about this, plant early.

- Or, plant late.

So, the moths are active in the summertime, but usually they're done by July.

So if you plant late, if that's possible in your zone, - It's possible.

- To plant it late.

The other thing you wanna keep in mind is that they pupate underground in the soil.

So if you had a problem in that area last year, rotate crops.

- Crop rotation.

- Don't plant your squash there the following year because they're in the soil and they're gonna attack again.

So, rotate your crops from that area.

- Rotate your crops, yeah.

'Cause after about four weeks, you know, they pretty much drop into the ground and pupate.

So yeah, you might wanna rotate your crops.

That would definitely help.

- I know she said in a pot.

- This is a pot, right, this is a pot.

- Fresh soil.

- Fresh soil, right, exactly right.

So this is a pot, fresh soil will definitely do that.

But yeah, squash vine borers are tough.

A lot of people don't plant squash because the squash vine borers.

- Exactly.

- They can be a nuisance, there's no doubt about that.

So, thank you for that question, Constance.

And one last thing, Constance, check with your local Extension Office there, Texas A&M Extension.

They'll have a publication for you about squash vine borers.

Alright, so Jessie, Mary, that was fun.

Thank you much.

- Thank you.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org, And the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about purple martins, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

We have another video about those interesting birds.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [birds chirping] [acoustic guitar chords]