SSSSSSSSSNAKES IN THE GARDEN. It is not uncommon this time of year to encounter a slithery visitor in gardens, landscapes, and backyards. There are several species of snakes happy to live their lives in backyards, but one of the most common is the eastern gartern snake. Named for the 3 light stripes that run along the length of its black, brown, gray, or olive body, the garter snake is sometimes nicknamed the 'garden' snake because that is where unsuspecting gardeners often encounter them. The stripes running vertically along the length of the snake's body resemble the once...

More responses from bygl-alert readers:

3). Tom Holcomb wrote that: 

Our 80-year old plus parents have a gorgeous huge tulip poplar. Earlier it was full of blossoms. Squirrels have nipped most of them off.  They believed this is the first year that this is happened. Wondering if there is a reason/explanation for this?  

I do not know the answer, but one possibility is that this is due to the large amount of nectar produced by tuliptree (another name for tulip poplar) flowers. If so, their behavior is not so squirrely, after all.

4). ...

Below are a few selected bygl-alert user comments from mid-June.

1). Mary Beth Breckenridge wrote:

Read your cicada article in BYGL with interest. But have you eaten one?

I have not, but the outstanding writer and journalist Mary Beth, of northeast Ohio’s Beacon Journal newspaper has, and to prove it, go to:

 https://www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ/videos/10154444348473296/

Collin Foltz,  a student in my OSU Sustainable Landscape Maintenance class this...

The time of eating the woodsy fruits of raspberries is beginning, but the genus for raspberries and blackberries (Rubus) is not just for eating.  The purple-flowered raspberry (Rubus odoratus) is a small- to medium-sized (3 to 8 feet) native shrub in the rose family (Rosaceae).  In both woodlands (I saw it this week at Mohican State Park) and for landscapes this raspberry is a welcome sight. It has maple-like leaves (but alternate rather than opposite leaf arrangement) and sparse wine-like purple flowers. These flowers almost remind you, appropriately so, of – small wild...

Yellow poplar weevil (Odontopus calceatus) is a snout beetle that causes mostly cosmetic damage on tuliptree (also known as yellow poplar and tulip poplar), sassafras, and certain magnolias. I noted damage on tuliptree this past week while also noting developing cicada tree flagging also occurring on tuliptree. Damage on tuliptree leaves includes little bean-shaped scar-like pits in leaves due to epidermal feeding by the weevil adults and larger leaf blotch mines by the weevil larvae. Damage is usually just cosmetic, but in outbreaks may result is a scorched appearance to the...

Many have noted this Spring that there are not as many red maple (Acer rubrum) seedlings popping up in flower beds. This was illustrated for me this past Saturday (June 11) when crossing the footbridge adjacent to the B & O Harmar Bridge, spanning the Muskingum River from Marietta proper to Harmar Village in southern Ohio.  I visited this bridge for the first time on June 21, 2013 and at the time took a picture then of the many red maple seedlings sprouting from the wooden railroad ties of the railroad bridge. This year, almost nada for red maple seedlings.  

If you look at a map of the emergence of Brood V of the 17-year cicadas, Magicicada septendecim (what a great name!), for example at cicadamania.com, it looks like almost the entire eastern half of Ohio was destined for the same experience. As we know by now, though, it is not one size fits all. Go to the OSU Mansfield Campus and the cacophony is big-time, go to Wooster and it is the late spring quietude, until dog-day cicadas, which we hear every year arrive later in the summer. Twenty miles south at Mohican State Park and the male cicadas choir is signing in noticeable numbers....

On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced that they will begin aerial treatments designed to disrupt gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) mating this summer in central Ohio. 

The gypsy moth is a non-native species that feeds on more than 300 different trees and shrubs, and is especially fond of oaks (Quercus spp.) while in its devastating caterpillar stage.  While healthy plants can usually withstand one or two years of defoliation, repeat feeding injury coupled with a drought or other pest pressures, can cause host plant ...

While BYGL Alerts are intended to provide fast-hitting information, sometimes it's important for us to take a little more time - and space - to dig deeper.  Our Southwest Ohio Diagnostic Walk-About group visited Stanley Rowe Arboretum yesterday and revisited an interesting nutrient deficiency problem that was observed by the group on Colorado blue spruce during our Walk-About last year.

...

The golden-backed snipe fly (Chrysopilus thoracicus) is one of the most beautiful insects you'll run across in Ohio forests.   Both the common and scientific names are very descriptive for this native fly.  The top of the thorax (= the "back") is covered in highly reflective golden colored hairs; "Chysopilus" means "golden hair."  The fly's body and wing veins are bluish-black and the abdomen has lateral white markings.

Little appears to be known regarding the fly's life-style.  The adults have been observed visiting the flowers of a number of native plants,...