By Juergen Jaenicke, MG
(Courtesy Cornell Cooperative Extension)

• Control the adult stage of the black vine weevil (or taxus weevi) now and thru mid-July. Apply acephate (Orthene) on foilage of and soil beneath taxus (yews) or rhododendron. Pitfall traps or beating sheets can help monitor adult activity. Hand pick in small plantings. Entomophagous nematodes may be used for soil dwelling larvae, when it is present.
• Remove old flowers (but not foilage) from spring-flowering bulbs.
• Prune shrubs that have just completed flowering (weigela, philadelhus, deutzia, etc.)
• Take poinsetta cuttings now for blooming plants by christmas.
• The second spray application for birch leaf miner should be made during the second week of June. Use carbaryl, acephate, dimethoate or malathion.
• Apply an all-purpose spray (a combination of insecticide and fungicide) to apples every seven to ten days.
• Spray with acephate or carbaryl in early- to mid-June, to control eunymus scale crawlers on euonymus, bittersweet and pachysandra again in mid-July. Or use dimethoate soil drench.
• Examine for evidence of chich bugs on turf. Place a coffee can (with bottom cut out) over the edge of the suspected area and fill with water for five minutes. If present, insects will float to the top. Treat during June. Use an insecticide (carbaryl, chlorohyrifos, Aspon or isofenphos). Water lawn before treatment. Except with Aspon and isofenphos, a second application may be necessary two or three weeks later. Water in granular materials immediately after apllication. Use endophyte-containing cultivars. Avoid drought.