It has been another busy couple of weeks in the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic with a variety of disease and insect samples. Remember you can check the PIDC’s facebook page to ask questions and for updates and more pictures.
 
Diseases

These past weeks we’ve seen Verticillium and Fusarium wilt on tomato.
 
Other veggies have shown root rot symptoms and herbicide damage. Some pictures of cucurbits suggest angular leaf spot and anthracnose might be showing up.
 
We’ve received samples and some questions about yellowing daylilies, but none of them have been diagnosed with a disease problem- we suspect environmental issues but we’ll keep you updated on this.
 
We also saw Phlox and one turf sample with signs of powdery mildew.
 
Although we have seen quite a bit of stress and decline on urban trees, not a lot of them have shown signs of disease. We had a maple come in with tar spot and another sample with Valsa cankers.
 
Insects
 
Fourspotted sap beetles, AKA "picnic beetles," were mentioned last issue but remain a concern to gardeners and picnicers.  Recent callers report large numbers at dusk while trying to enjoy the mosquito-free evenings on the patio.  See the photo below.
 
Earwigs are back in the calls and samples.  It's been a few years since we had large numbers of calls about this common nuisance, but we've had more calls this spring than in the past several in spite of the relative dryness across the state.  See our online article for more information.
 
Fourspotted sap beetle on one of its favorite foods - an over-ripe strawberry!