April was an active month at the C. Wayne Ellett Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic, with a wide range of plant health issues observed across ornamentals, fruits, vegetables, and cut flowers. Conifer samples were especially common, alongside recurring pest issues on boxwood. We also diagnosed several fungal and bacterial diseases in fruit and vegetable crops, as well as mite and bacterial problems in cut flowers.

You may have planted trees last year or the year prior. You may have staked them. Now is a good time to check your trees before they start to grow this season.

Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers are traveling through Ohio on their way to their nesting grounds. The sapsuckers mark their passage through our state with rows of holes drilled into trees, which may pose a diagnostic challenge to the uninitiated. Although they look like simple holes, there's more to them than meets the eye.

The OGIA/OSU Extension Hands-On Diagnostic Walkabouts for Green Industry professionals are a comprehensive, hands-on training. Participants examine and discuss plants, plant pests, plant diseases, landscape designs, and other points of interest.

Frost warnings have been issued for parts of Ohio this weekend, May 1st and 2nd 2026, according to the National Weather Service with chilly temperatures in the low 30’s for Friday night, especially North-central Ohio. Will this hurt my plants?

Spring has sprung! Warmer weather leads to outdoor activity and that can mean exposure to ticks. Ticks are active YEAR-ROUND and tick reports are ramping up for spring. Even with some colder days in the forecast, those ticks will be alive and kicking. 

Swarms of crane flies (order Diptera, family Tipulidae) are bellowing up from lawns in Ohio. These large mosquito-like dipterans are also buzzing porch lights and may occasionally find their way into homes to terrorize the occupants.

Overwintered Calico Scale females have fully "inflated” and are pumping out copious quantities of sticky, sugary, honeydew; the calling card of phloem-sucking insects. This is a type of soft scale, with females covering themselves in a soft shell that can be mashed.

Box Tree Moth (BTM) (Cydalima perspectalis) has stolen the thunder of another non-native boxwood nemesis: Boxwood Leafminer (Monarthropalpus flavus, family Cecidomyiidae). However, the European expat remains a significant boxwood pest and should not be ignored.

Participants in the Diagnostic Walkabouts held as part of the Ohio Chapter ISA Field Day last week in Heritage Park, Westerville, OH, observed high populations of Buckeye Lace Bugs (Corythucha aesculi) feeding on their namesake host (Aesculus sp.). Their characteristic “leaf stippling” damage was becoming evident.

 

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