treating pests and diseases - wk 13

Today is Pest, Diseases and Disorders day with Laurie Miller.

Laurie examining some of our many 'finds'.

After a thorough session of scribbling notes about the ins and outs of thorax's and rasping mouthparts and too many other insecty details to list here......Laurie seperates us into groups and we attack our first test of the day. Think of as many pests as we can and classify them in their correct orders. This is a fun! and out of our 26 undesirables (glad to have Josie on our team who seems to know all the insects almost in person!) we only get one wrong. The ole White Fly is not of the Diptera but the Hemiptera order. Ahh....a trap for young players!

Our collection of bugs and bits.

Next on the list is to break into groups and go out exploring for pests and all manner of problems to bring back with us. Our group heads into the veggie patch to bring back a massive haul of bugs and scabby bits to display on the found table back at the pod.

This particular leaf is holding a least three different types of bugs! Nice!

Marcus cracks out the magnifying glasses and we check them out up close. It's AMAZING the world we don't really see or even take notice of going on right under our noses.

Laurie is impressed at our different hauls and we start to look at some of the finds in detail. The first is a sprig of green weed called 'Pettyspurge' that is a host to plenty of white fly. It is also known to carry Chrysanthemum rust.

The next is a fern frond (above) which Laurie surmises is suffering from a form of bacterial disease that starts where the water pools on the leaf and spreads from there.

Botrytis

Next up is an unhappy Tuberous begonia that is suffering from grey mould or Botrytis. This is a fungal disease caused by the fungus 'Ascomycetes'. It appears just as it sounds with a soft furry grey covering over the effected area. It can also affect strawberries and cut flowers.

Powdery Mildew 

Aphid infestation

After many more discussions and identifications like the ones above, we call it a day and leave class with a lot more know how than we arrived with!