By:  Mark Loux, Ted Wiseman, and Allen Gahler

Poison hemlock seems to be on everyone’s radar more than usual this year, especially in northern Ohio.  We know that while hemlock has been all over southern Ohio for years, it is continuing to spread northward, where new occurrences and observations of it may be engendering concern in the general public and local government. There have also been comments that it seems “worse than usual” this year in some areas, and we don’t have a ready explanation for what would cause this.  Continue reading Putting poison hemlock in perspective →

Gypsy moth larvae (caterpillars) in the 4th-6th instars have 5 pairs of blue spots followed by 6 pairs of red spots. Photo credit: Amy Stone, OSU Extension Lucas County.

Our office has received multiple reports of gypsy moth in the past two weeks from Williams County landowners. This invasive pest is currently in the larval (caterpillar) stage of its life cycle, and can be seen feeding on the leaves of various tree and shrub species, especially oak trees. At this point in the year, gypsy moth is difficult to manage and efforts should shift to scouting for pupa, or the next stage of the life cycle that transforms larvae into moths. Continue reading Be on Alert for Gypsy Moth in Williams County →

By:  Mark Loux

It can be nice to see old friends.  Except when they cause crop and yield loss, refuse to leave after a few days, and don’t respond to chemicals.  A while back we wrote about what appeared to be an increase in populations of dandelions and other winter weeds and made some guesses about why this was happening.  Canada thistle has once again become a problem in some fields in a big way, probably for some of the same reasons that dandelion has.  Our history with thistle during the past 30+ years is that it was a major problem before the widespread adoption of RoundupReady soybeans in the late 1990s.  Back then we had to take advantage of specific windows in the cropping cycle to try to get control with glyphosate, and the rest of the time we just tried to keep it from getting worse.  The “all glyphosate, all the time” strategy during the first decade of RoundupReady soybeans handled thistle and other perennials such as milkweed and hemp dogbane well, and we didn’t hear much about them.  Now we are though, and increases in thistle could be due to the following: Continue reading Canada thistle rebounds? →