Ok, y'all. Time for some real talk. I don't like bugs.
I mean sure, I enjoy fishing - plenty of bugs there. Any time there's a creepy crawly crawling around my abode, it's up to me to put a boot down and make it go squish.
But I've also developed a bit of a thing when it comes to bugs. Sometimes when I'm trying to sleep at night, I'll get an itch and get it in my head that it's something crawling up my leg. Not a good feeling.
So class 7 got to me a couple times.
Jerry Alldredge taught class 7. He's a relatively recent WCGMA intern. He went through the program in 2017 after moving to Williamson County from Colorado. As he put it, he had a lifetime in landscape design but couldn't grow a thing after moving to middle Tennessee.
Side note - Jerry leads the diagnostic team which works with residents to identify issues that are affecting plants on their property. It's a great service that UTIA offers through the local extension offices. Here's some more info.
Jerry's long career as a professional plant person means he knows everything about insects that are pests for plants. We talked about larva and pupa and nymph and metamorphosis. We talked about chewing bugs, sucking bugs, rasping bugs, internally feeding bugs, underground root-eating bugs, and bugs that spread disease just by existing.
The whole time, there were pictures on pictures on pictures. I'll spare you, but suffice it to say, there where several times where I just shuddered looking at them.
Ok - enough confession. Time for trivia! How many insects are there per person in the WORLD?
a. 200,000
b. 2,000,000
c. 20,000,000
d. 200,000,000
If you guessed D, you're right! According to estimates, there are about 200-million insects for every one of the 6 billion people on earth.
While the lesson on bugs was plenty gross (the word "fecal" was uttered more than once), the moral of the story was that insects do a lot of good for the gardener and for the world. Obviously, we wouldn't have anything to eat without insects to pollenate our fruit and veg and animal feed. Plenty of insects eat other insects - like lady bugs that naturally control populations of aphids.
Really, insects are a resource in the garden that we should protect. It's something that goes back to the theme of stewardship. We briefly covered the deep topic of Integrated Pest Management. Principles of IPM are monitoring your plants, identifying your pests, choosing your strategy for mitigating them, implementing the strategy, and recording the results. It's a lot more work, but you're not going to massacre the pollinators in your area, either.
So, rather than insert a bunch of pictures of bugs magnified huge, I'll leave you with some pretty shots of cherry trees in bloom at the Tennessee State Capitol.
I mean sure, I enjoy fishing - plenty of bugs there. Any time there's a creepy crawly crawling around my abode, it's up to me to put a boot down and make it go squish.
But I've also developed a bit of a thing when it comes to bugs. Sometimes when I'm trying to sleep at night, I'll get an itch and get it in my head that it's something crawling up my leg. Not a good feeling.
So class 7 got to me a couple times.
Jerry Alldredge taught class 7. He's a relatively recent WCGMA intern. He went through the program in 2017 after moving to Williamson County from Colorado. As he put it, he had a lifetime in landscape design but couldn't grow a thing after moving to middle Tennessee.
Side note - Jerry leads the diagnostic team which works with residents to identify issues that are affecting plants on their property. It's a great service that UTIA offers through the local extension offices. Here's some more info.
Jerry's long career as a professional plant person means he knows everything about insects that are pests for plants. We talked about larva and pupa and nymph and metamorphosis. We talked about chewing bugs, sucking bugs, rasping bugs, internally feeding bugs, underground root-eating bugs, and bugs that spread disease just by existing.
The whole time, there were pictures on pictures on pictures. I'll spare you, but suffice it to say, there where several times where I just shuddered looking at them.
Ok - enough confession. Time for trivia! How many insects are there per person in the WORLD?
a. 200,000
b. 2,000,000
c. 20,000,000
d. 200,000,000
If you guessed D, you're right! According to estimates, there are about 200-million insects for every one of the 6 billion people on earth.
While the lesson on bugs was plenty gross (the word "fecal" was uttered more than once), the moral of the story was that insects do a lot of good for the gardener and for the world. Obviously, we wouldn't have anything to eat without insects to pollenate our fruit and veg and animal feed. Plenty of insects eat other insects - like lady bugs that naturally control populations of aphids.
Really, insects are a resource in the garden that we should protect. It's something that goes back to the theme of stewardship. We briefly covered the deep topic of Integrated Pest Management. Principles of IPM are monitoring your plants, identifying your pests, choosing your strategy for mitigating them, implementing the strategy, and recording the results. It's a lot more work, but you're not going to massacre the pollinators in your area, either.
So, rather than insert a bunch of pictures of bugs magnified huge, I'll leave you with some pretty shots of cherry trees in bloom at the Tennessee State Capitol.
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