asian jumping worms: what we know (2018 interview), with uw-madison’s brad herrick

A happy and pleasant surprise has just arrived through the post at home.

For years, Clemson Extension personnel in South Carolina have received claims from many homeowners that they have Japanese or Asian giant hornets on their property or nesting in their homes. They have not. They have either had native cicada killers, baldfaced hornets, or the exotic European hornet. All these wasps are large, but they are not as large or intimidating as the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. South Carolinians often use the subspecies name Japanese hornet, Vespa mandarinia japonica, but experts have merged the two as just the Asian giant hornet. Unfortunately, now some in the news media are reporting them as “murder hornets.”

The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB; Anoplophora glabripennis) is not easy to miss – adults of this large, black beetle with white spots, black and white striped antennae, and blueish feet are between 1 and 1 ½” long (Fig. 1). ALB larvae are equally striking as the large, white segmented larvae can be nearly 2” in length (Fig. 2). Established populations in the U.S. are found in Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, and a new infestation was recently found in Charleston County, South Carolina.

Every spring, all over in South Carolina, we see yards, abandoned lots, natural areas, roadsides, and, in some cases, forests filled with white flowers. These first white flowers of the year are nearly all from the Callery pear tree (Pyrus calleryana). This tree is native to China, and while they may look the same, many of the trees planted in yards, around businesses, and in other managed landscapes across South Carolina are cultivars of P. calleryana. One of the most common cultivars is the Bradford pear. For more information on Bradford pears, see HGIC 1006, Bradford Pear. Bradford pears, by themselves, cannot produce viable seed. But, if pollen from a different flowering pear cultivar (or a wild Callery pear) pollinates a Bradford pear flower, then viable seed can be produced. The fruit are often eaten by birds, and birds doing what birds do (hint: they poop), spread the seeds across the land. When these new plants grow, they’re now Callery pears, the wild relative of Bradford and other cultivated varieties of Pyrus calleryana.

The recent news that all Pyrus calleryana cultivars – the most common of which is the Bradford pear – and several Elaeagnus species have been added to the “do not sell” list in South Carolina has generated a lot of buzz and a lot of questions from homeowners. We’ll try to answer some of those questions in this blog post.

If you knelt down and gave this mushroom a sniff, I can promise you would not take a bite out of it. This mushroom belongs to a group known as stinkhorns.

I SAID IT A FEW WEEKS AGO, when I saw a change of the guard at my feeders a couple of weeks ahead of “normal”–do the birds know something I don’t yet? Seemed to me then that winter’s first teases must be close at hand. And now the National Weather Service says it may drop to 33 one night this week, slightly higher the others (not as scary as parts of Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, where I see–egads!–winter weather advisories and freeze watches and warnings).

DESPITE THAT 1940s Harry Truman-ism, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen,” that’s exactly where harvest time sends us, especially if we grow our own edibles. Who better to ask for inspiration now than Deborah Madison—often called the Julia Child of vegetarian cooking? Listen to our conversation (my newest podcast) about her latest book, “Vegetable Literacy.” Along the way you’ll get wisdom on her must-have garden herbs; a recipe for her versatile, rich-in-a-good-way Romesco sauce; and even Deborah’s unexpected secret weapon for gopher control.Madison’s massive 1997 volume “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone” (Amazon link) is probably on your shelf, or should be, and this year she published her 10th cookbook–another comprehensive, beautiful must-have. It’s arranged not in the usual manner (appetizer to dessert) but taxonomically, by plant family.  (Remember my story about it, and her recipe for cauliflower pasta with red pepper flakes and more?)

NO, I WAS NOT BORN IN WACO, TEXAS, nor do I play the banjo. And no, I never worked at Disneyland, though these days I feel as if I live in a fairytale, if not a theme park exactly.

These non-native “ladybugs,” introduced by the Department of Agriculture to help combat certain agricultural pests, have made themselves right at home in America—and in my house, too. In fall, the south-facing side of the exterior can be teeming with patches of them, as they look for places to tuck into and overwinter. The USDA imported lady beetles from Japan as early as 1916 as a beneficial insect, to gobble up unwanted pests on forest and orchard trees, but it was probably later releases, in the late 1970s and early 80s in the Southeast, that took hold. Today, multicolored Asian lady beetles have made themselves completely at home around the United States, easily adapting to regions as diverse as Louisiana, Oregon, and mine in New York State.

Lately I have a lot of little fuzzy black and white creatures eating the leaves of my cannas (above), which is what got me started wondering who’s who. Turns out that’s the larval form of a hickory tussock moth, I think, whose usual diet is ash, elm, oak, hickory, maple, willow, and other trees.Though he looks velvety, look but don’t touch, apparently: The long “lashes” of the hickory tussock moth, Lophocampa caryae, are hollow tubes connected to poison glands, and can give susceptible people a stinging nettle-like rash or other reaction. The rest of the bristles, or setae, may also be irritating.This extensive University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee article offers a full portrait of the life of the hickory tussock moth, which apparently will spend the winter in a silk cocoon under tree bark or on the ground, then eventually works its way gradually n

Maybe the variety description says something about a pledge, and makes a comparison to open-source software–the non-proprietary kind that doesn’t require a license to use.Welcome to the world of “freed seed,” a concept inspired by the open-source software movement, but aimed at insuring that the genes in at least some seed varieties can never be patented and otherwise restricted, and thereby locked away