Here is your Growing Degree Day (GDD) summary ending May 31, 2022.

Kousa Dogwoods are in full flower in Northern Ohio. If you don’t have one in your landscape, it may be worth considering.

Insects that belong to the Hemipteran family Reduviidae are collectively known as assassin bugs. The family includes over 160 species in North America, and all are meat-eaters. Immature assassin bugs are now lurking among the leaves of trees and shrubs in Ohio in search of prey.

Magnolia scale (Neolecanium cornuparvum) is a type of "soft scale" so named because the females are hidden beneath a helmet-like soft leathery covering that provides limited protection. Soft scales can be squashed!

The extent of the invasion of Birdsfoot Trefoil in Ohio is now being revealed through a canary yellow floral display. The yellow flowers are smaller than dandelion flowers, bigger than those of black medic, and resemble buttercups from a distance.

Oystershell Scale has long presented a management challenge given its wide host range coupled with limited insecticide targets. However, this armored scale has been largely supplanted by the Japanese Maple Scale in Ohio owing to a combination of misidentification leading to the miss-targeting of insecticide applications.

The name “scorpionfly” sounds like a dangerous combination. Like some freakish creature buzzing out of the Upside Down or lurking in a Jurassic dominion. Of course, scorpionflies aren’t flies with scorpion stingers just like pineapples aren’t apples growing on pines. The contractions tell a story; pineapples were so named because they resemble pine cones.

Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense) is not Canadian. It’s native to southeastern Europe. Exactly how it got to North America is not known but our friends up north got blamed even though there’s evidence it arrived in the U.S. and Canada at around the same time. Thankfully, Ohioans weren’t involved in the name game; it could have been called “Michigan thistle.”

Spotted Lanternfly nymphs have begun the hatch from an infestation that was discovered last year in Amherst, Ohio.

Skeletonizing damage produced by an oak slug sawfly on oaks belonging to the white oak group is becoming in southwest Ohio. The upper leaf surface appears bleached with leave veins remaining apparent. Flipping the leaves over reveals the slug-like culprits stuck to the underside of the leaves.