Daggone, 1sst! I'm sorry to be so unsure about that insect, but now I don't think it's either one we've suggested so far. I'm wondering now if it's a blister beetle. The one just pictured is dark and has six yellow spots. Sometimes the spots are orange, and there are lots of different varieties of these critters, around 2,500. Anyway, if THAT's what they are, they have a bite that causes pain and swelling, so they should be handled carefully. I think I've been no help at all! But sometimes it's really difficult to ID insects, even with pictures. Again I'd say to watch them carefully and destroy them if they're damaging your plants. Otherwise, wait and see?

Y'all are too funny. The 'panic' statement was NOT aimed at or inspired by any one person, but don't y'all think there's a little bit of that "oh no" panic in all of us when we discover one garden pest or another has arrived? I just figured it was that time of year, and wanted to encourage everyone to view their garden/yard/landscape as an ecosystem and understand that ecosystems need balance, and that includes a balanced bug population. The only people I know who have really serious insect issues are the ones who routinely spray broad-spectrum chemical pesticides (and I have folks around me in the country who do this too, it is NOT restricted to only city folks) every time they see a bug. Once they've wiped out the good bugs, there's no one left to help them with the bad bugs, and bad bugs always rebound more quickly. Andria, bugguide.net is a good bug ID site and there are others, but that's the one I use the most often. Bt products should state on their label which Bt they are, unless it is clear in their name. The ones I buy have an Ingredient list and specify which Bt in that list. Bt kurstaki is sold in many products, and often it says Caterpillar Killer in large letters on the label. You'll find it in Thuricide and Dipel, among other products and, yes, the caterpillars you see on cole family crops are controlled by this form of Bt. The 'san diego' strain used for Colorado Potato Beetles will feature a Beetle somewhere on its label or in its name, like the product 'Colorado Potato Beater". The 'israelensis' strain used for mosquito larvae will have mosquitoes on the label and is found as mosquito dunks or as a granular product you can sprinkle into ponds and other still bodies of water. To avoid harming butterflies, I try to use Bt 'kurstaki' as little as possible, but it would be hard to get a good crop of cabbage without it. I don't spray the broccoli though, and I don't spray tomato plants with Bt to kill hornworms and fruitworms. I just handpick them when I find them and count on the help of the parasitic wasps. Boomer, Thanks. I think we have more than two kinds of gardeners here...we have many kinds and we all just do the best we can with what we've got. I gardened in a big city until I was 39 years old and moved here. I remember when folks sprayed DDT for everything when I was a child. Heck, I remember us kids running or riding our bicycles in the 'mist' that came out of the tanker truck when the city sprayed for mosquitoes. (It is a wonder the chemical exposure didn't kill us all!) I've tried raising a big 8' x 10' garden in a yard that was 95% shade, and was thrilled to have 6 tomato plants. I've done square foot gardening. I've done container gardening. What I do now is Biointensive gardening the John Jeavons/Alan Chadwick way. It works better for me than anything else I've ever done. You have to work with what you've got, and we've all got different challenges. And, in case you're thinking it is easy out here in the country, let me tell you.....I have ranching neighbors who spray large amounts of chemicals and it sometimes causes me problems. You just have to deal with the hand you're dealt. I get very frustrated when their herbicide drift kills or damages plants in my garden, but there's really nothing I can do to prevent it. I don't think pesticides are used as much as they used to be out here, but they're still used at a level that makes me uncomfortable. In one very, very bad grasshopper year, so much junk was sprayed to kill grasshoppers (and it didn't kill them!) that many songbirds died. We didn't see a single bluebird for over three years. During the last decade, I've seen a big shift in attitudes here...even the diehard chemical-using farmers and ranchers are trying really hard to do things in a much more sustainable way, and that gives me hope. They used to laugh at me, the organic nut, and now some of them ask me "What would you do for....." and I try to give them the best organic answers I know. Being more sustainable and 'green' is in, and that's a really good thing. Still, even though I prefer to garden as naturally as possible, I would defend anyone's right to use a chemical product if that is what they believe is best. I just think there's a better way. I don't even like using pyrethrins/permethrins because of their toxicity, and I would never use Rotenone. Neem is OK, but I only use it as an absolute last resort...so maybe one time every three or four years. I avoid most soaps and horticultural oils because they can burn foliage in hot weather. I guess, when it comes right down to it, that's not much I use other than hand-picking, squishing, or drowning pests. I do like Spinosad and love iron phosphate/Spinosad for the sowbugs and pill bugs. I use Nolo Bait every few years for hoppers (this probably will be that year....based on what I'm seeing in terms of how large the current nymph hatch is). I use more companion planting than anyone I know, and I use the companion plants either to attract beneficials and pollinators or to repel unwanted pests. I always describe my beds as a crazy quilt, because each bed is a blend of veggies, flowers and herbs. Some of the 'old farmer' types here refer to my companion plants as 'your weeds' but I just laugh it off. In case you think I don't get that little panicky 'oh no' feeling when I see a sudden influx of pests, you're wrong. I get it too. Then, instead of reaching for a chemical solution, I work on using a natural one. There have been a couple of times that I panicked and bought a chemical pesticide, and then couldn't force myself to use it. lol Guess what? The pest issue resolved itself and I didn't lose my crop or even a significant portion of it. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing, but it has taken me my entire life to arrive at the point that I understand that. When we moved here, we had lots of pest insects, and seemingly few beneficial insects. I worked really hard for 4 or 5 years to control the bad guys and attract the good guys, and finally had one of those years where the good guys showed up and took care of the bad guys. There were a couple of years like that, and then one year, the good guys didn't come. Do you know why? Because our population of pest insects was too low to support the good bugs. It took me a while to understand that, but then it was an 'aha' moment and I finally got "it". Laura, I loved your description of your ecosystem and all the wild critters in it. I think it is simply wonderful that your daughter is learning so much at such a young age. Debra addressed the lady bug issue....all shapes, sizes, colors, including solid black ones. I've even seen pink ones here. They're pretty cute. Jleroi, Some of the most fierce battles I've ever seen are between praying mantids....but there's all kinds of life-and-death-drama between the various wild things every day. It is fascinating! Tigerdawn, This wasn't aimed at you. lol You're going to be fine. Trust me. I have a gardening friend who used to reach for the pesticide every time he saw a bug and has just decided to wait until a certain level of damage is being seen. Guess what? He rarely sees the damage rise to the level he thinks is 'too much' and now he realizes that the insects are not nearly as damaging as he thought they were. Glenda, My friend, Fred, is a big Sevin user, but he's really backed off in the last few years, and I can't tell his garden has any more pest issues than it did before. I think that after years of giving me a hard time about 'hogging all the bees', he finally decided to stop spraying so much and see if his bees would come back....and they did. He proudly stopped by one day recently while I was working outside to announce that the bees were working his fruit trees like crazy. I was excited for him. Dorothy, I think I'll look and see if Rodale has a bug guide somewhere online. You'd think they would. I used to have a great insect book, but I must have loaned it out or something because I can't find it now. All of you might get a big kick out of this: one year when our son was in high school, they had to do an Insect Collection, which of course was not high on any teenager's priority list. Once our son's classmates realized we had every bug in the world here at our place, some of them came by to 'catch bugs'. I wasn't sure if they thought it was great that we had so many bugs, or maybe terrible that we had so many, but they were able to catch all the different kinds of bugs they needed in just a couple of hours! Then they all worked together to identify them, and that helped me learn the names of some of the more obscure bugs, like Southern robber flies. After that, we were the 'go-to guys' for anyone doing a bug collection...nieces and nephews who lived in 'nuked' neighborhoods in Texas, DH's co-workers kids from Texas, etc. Need a bug? We've got 'em here. : ) And, once they came here to collect bugs, they learned we had lots of wildflowers.....which then gave them an idea where to come when it was time for the Texas kids to do a wildflower collection. Dawn

Might I gently suggest, Ickle Cat, that you be patient and wait for that outdoor garden next spring and plant roses then? Keeping a potted rose happy inside a warm apartment is very difficult, indeed. Starting out with a boxed, dormant rose (especially one of those unnamed chopped & waxed poor things) is even less likely to reach success. There is a good reason that roses are not usually house plants. You certainly can keep the potting soil moist and let things go for a some more weeks to be sure, but it sounds like your rose pushed all the energy it had stored in its canes into some growth and then you cut it off. That kind of "pruning" does not, I'm afraid, "make them grow." It may be putting out new roots and it may send out more new leaves - you can mist the canes to help keep them moist (if planted outdoors, one would mound them to keep them from drying out.) Don't keep the pot in standing water in a saucer; you don't want to rot the roots - but keep the whole thing nicely damp. Be sure to allow it the maximum sunshine you can manage and then be patient. No fertilizer, please, at this time. Either it will grow or it won't and all you can do is wait and see. The real trouble comes in if it does succeed in surviving and pushing out new growth - then it will be your task to keep it free of spider mites and other troubles that plaque roses in the dry, warm indoor environment...and you're realistically looking to do this for a year? Well, not impossible, but highly improbable, IMHO. I've overwintered potted healthy roses indoors just for fun - and believe me, it is a lot of work to keep them healthy. Did it for a few years and was glad to put the practice behind me! ;-) Perhaps you could spend this year researching and learning more about roses, what they need and how they grow. There are lots and lots of good books on the subject and not to mention lots of information on the Web. Visit nurseries and gardens and ask questions. You'll be far more prepared next year to make good choices of roses for your new garden and to keep those choices happy and growing. Sincere good luck to you!

I don't believe anything except heavy construction is going to outright kill those trees. They're tough! Lose some roots? No problem, we'll make more! As to the suggestion to topdress with compost and aerify, that will be good for the turf but of little impact to drainage or for that matter, tree health. @ viper....I disagree. Rain gardens, such as I understand them anyway, do most of their work via the soil layers. The main function is infiltration and that has relatively little to do with the plant material which may be on site. Further-and this is new information-it seems that melt water which constantly enters the device at a slow rate even in winter is sufficient to defrost the soils in many raingardens. I suppose I may as well toss in the caveat that this was from research out of Ohio. I'm sure nobody in Ohio thinks they're living in a warm spot, but contrast that with a place like Wisconsin, where it's even colder in the winter.....and you can see there's still room for question. But so far as my understanding goes right now, raingardens can and often do work in the winter as well. Now for some balance: Raingarden proponents like to tout the "deep roots" of the prairie species used for these practices. But..........(there's always a "but"), this has far more to do with soil characteristics than it does with anything to do with a given plant species' rooting characteristics. That's the dirty little secret that all these prairie warriors either won't say or don't know. They parade around as if another patch of ironweed ( a cool plant) is going to save the world. As far as I can tell, it's what has happened to the soil, and especially the subsoil, that is going to influence rooting depth. Not species of plant. All that said, a properly designed rain garden or bioswale can be a wonderful thing. I think it's important that aesthetics be considered. Nobody's going to fall inline with a technique-no matter how useful-if it doesn't look interesting.