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Talking all things horticulture, ecology, and design.
00:00:05:06 - 00:00:24:12
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator at the University of Illinois Extension, coming to you from Macomb, Illinois. And we have got a great show for you today. It is a good summertime Q&A and I say oof! Because it's just so darn hot out there right now. my goodness. And you know, I'm not doing this by myself.
00:00:24:12 - 00:00:30:19
Speaker 1
I am sweating it out as always every single week. With horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
00:00:30:19 - 00:00:38:21
Speaker 2
Hello, Chris. It is definitely steamy. Fortunately today there's a bit of a breeze, which helps slightly, but it's still hot.
00:00:38:23 - 00:01:02:17
Speaker 1
Yes, that and by bit of a breeze. Like it's it's like a like straight line, 30 mile per hour wind in some instances. Yeah, it's very windy. We just out at the ball fields and those poor kids out there, we're just getting dust and sand and grit blown in their face all morning long. So a year ago brush their teeth when they get home.
00:01:02:19 - 00:01:05:00
Speaker 2
They won't have to exfoliate when they get home.
00:01:05:02 - 00:01:31:02
Speaker 1
Exactly. No, they won't. It'll just that outer layer of skin will come right off in the shower. So. goodness. Yeah. I seem to be finding myself. It seems weird considering it's mid-June, but finding myself with the hose in my hand, sometimes two, maybe three times a day. Now, we did this last year too, but we had kind of an unprecedented spring drought.
00:01:31:04 - 00:01:51:08
Speaker 1
We've had a lot of well, not a lot, but we've had adequate rainfall this spring, which was very nice. But it seems like at least where I'm at in McComb, the the McComb Dome, as it's known as here, has been doing its job. A lot of the storms, as they come through, tend to break up or split right around McComb.
00:01:51:14 - 00:01:56:12
Speaker 1
And I know you have the Jacksonville Force field as well.
00:01:56:14 - 00:02:09:14
Speaker 2
Yes, it's been holding strong, at least in my yard. We're starting to crack in areas, so we could definitely use some rain. I have started doing my rain dance here so I don't have to keep watering constantly.
00:02:09:16 - 00:02:29:09
Speaker 1
Exactly. Yes. So the water bill is going to be getting high a little bit earlier than normal, which is going to be June. Normally, you know, we're out there watering a lot in July and then August. But June's typically got some moisture still in the ground, but that is not the case today.
00:02:29:11 - 00:02:38:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. And looking at the forecast, that's now as of Tuesday, it's not looking for your problems to be pretty, pretty hit and miss when it comes to rain.
00:02:38:04 - 00:02:55:19
Speaker 1
As of Tuesday, June 18th, we are looking at 90 degree highs and no rain to speak of for the next ten days here in McComb. So Yahoo! We'll keep an eye on that weather, though. So just so give me a morning when I don't have to wake up in water. So that'll be nice.
00:02:55:19 - 00:03:22:13
Speaker 1
So in addition to a lot of the questions that we have about wind, that rain will arrive. There are other questions that are arriving into our extension offices. And so these are going to be sort of early summer themed questions here. Now that we will be sharing with you actual questions from real people that we have been working with to try to solve or answer these questions.
00:03:22:13 - 00:03:43:24
Speaker 1
So, Ken, I think I'm going to kick this off with with asking this question to you, since I didn't have I don't have this issue in my neck of the woods, but I know you do. So the first question is asking about the branches at the end of their trees and they want to know that some of the branches on their trees are snapping off.
00:03:43:24 - 00:03:52:17
Speaker 1
They've dried out or they're just hanging up, they're dangling in the canopy. What is causing this and how do I fix it?
00:03:52:19 - 00:04:14:22
Speaker 2
So this is the cicada egg laying damage or the flagging so you can walk through Remember all the scattered torque skaters they're laying their eggs and branches, usually about the width of a pencil, maybe a little bit bigger, a little bit smaller, But pencil range, they're inserting their overpasses or their egg laying device. They were kind of saw into the branches and deposit their eggs and they'll work their way down those branches.
00:04:14:24 - 00:04:37:06
Speaker 2
This will weaken the branch. So if we get wind, any kind of wind, some bands of the branches will snap and the tips of those branches will start to die and we get this flagging. So it's all those dead branches we're seeing in the tree canopies. And here in Jacksonville when you were you saw this. There's a couple of trees that have an extensive amount of flagging and there's others that have just a few few spots here and there.
00:04:37:06 - 00:04:55:00
Speaker 2
And the canopy for the most part is, well, there's not really anything you can do about it. The damage is already done. You could remove those if you really wanted to. It's not going to hurt anything to leave them there. They'll eventually fall on their own. The eggs of the cicadas are in these branches. They'll start hatching about 6 to 10 weeks after they've been laid.
00:04:55:00 - 00:05:09:11
Speaker 2
So we've still got some time before those eggs are hatching. The eggs will hatch the this will drop to the ground. They'll start feeding on roots. Probably more than likely they'll start off with turf grass and then work their way down onto the roots of the trees or the shrubs that they were laid on. Just kind of ends on what roots are around.
00:05:09:11 - 00:05:29:08
Speaker 2
So the cicadas, when they're feeding on those trees, it's probably not going to cause really any significant damage or really slow them down. All those eggs that got laid in there were caused by cicadas that have been in the ground for 13 or 17 years feeding on those plants. And your plants have been doing just fine. So there's not really any need to remove those those flag branches.
00:05:29:08 - 00:05:48:01
Speaker 2
It will damage branches. You can, but it's not going to really affect the long term health of the tree by having those nymphs feeding on those plants and they're in the ground for 13 or 17 years takes them a really long time to grow. So they're not removing a tremendous amount of nutrients from those plants. So there's really not a whole lot you can do.
00:05:48:03 - 00:06:08:14
Speaker 2
They're falling to the ground. You can rake them up and dispose of them because it's going to look kind of cluttered and messy if if you have all those branches dropping. But they will they will fall on their own and have the self pruning. And a lot of times we'll get a large flush of growth or a lot of flowering in some trees next year because of this natural pruning.
00:06:08:16 - 00:06:26:07
Speaker 1
Get out the rake and start cleaning up all the limbs coming down. And I, as I was in Jacksonville, driving around with you the other day, Ken, I noticed all of the branch tips falling off in in the wind and everything. And it's actually kind of neat to see, you know, these are just the tips of the branches.
00:06:26:07 - 00:06:43:20
Speaker 1
It's not big limbs falling out and they just sort of glide down like a helicopter would, you know, just sort of load on down to the ground. So it's kind of neat if I if I was down there, I would go down, find a tree with really bad flagging and I would just make a game out of trying to catch them as they fall to the ground.
00:06:43:20 - 00:06:46:15
Speaker 1
It's how my mind works.
00:06:46:17 - 00:06:48:14
Speaker 2
They were probably a good day to do that.
00:06:48:16 - 00:07:08:10
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Well, it's very windy day and breezy. Yeah. All right. Well, also, so there are people, though, who maybe tried to protect smaller plants, trees or shrubs or whatnot. Are they are they out of the woods? Can we take off the netting over our our other trees and shrubs?
00:07:08:12 - 00:07:26:02
Speaker 2
Sure. So so right now in here on June 18, a lot of us are going to depend on where you're at here in Jacksonville. Sadly, the singing has stopped. So there I have not seen any live cicadas here in Jacksonville for a few days. So we've removed all the netting on our trees and stuff. So we're we're past the point of egg laying.
00:07:26:04 - 00:07:49:21
Speaker 2
And I've heard a little bit of maybe a few in Springfield left, but we're getting towards the end. You're probably safe to pull them off there. If you still have a lot of singing, you probably want to leave your netting on just to protect those trees down. Once that singing and you'll notice all the sun gets quieter and quieter and then all of a sudden there's nothing once that that singing really starts declining or you stop hearing it, you can then remove that netting.
00:07:49:23 - 00:07:59:16
Speaker 2
Or if you netted something like a rose or something like that, things like Japanese beetles, like just leave that netting on. And if you have issues with Japanese beetles, you can keep them off their land here. So.
00:07:59:18 - 00:08:10:19
Speaker 1
Exactly. Yeah. Then we've got to figure out reuses for all this netting that we had purchased. Now so now Japanese beetle deterrent. It's one, one one way to go.
00:08:10:21 - 00:08:22:13
Speaker 2
You get netting on your building. How big the netting is, you know, fruit trees keep your birds or squirrels or animals off Spanish. There's multiple ways we can potentially reduce this if you really want to.
00:08:22:15 - 00:08:35:19
Speaker 1
It's true. It is blueberry season. My blueberries in my yard are wrapping it up. We got our first bowl that we picked the other day so we can keep the birds off by throwing some nets over that and prevents the birds from getting them. Before we do.
00:08:35:19 - 00:08:42:13
Speaker 2
All right. So our next question here has to do with tomatoes. So what's wrong with my tomatoes?
00:08:42:15 - 00:08:45:10
Speaker 1
I can't get it.
00:08:45:12 - 00:08:49:11
Speaker 2
Not necessarily tomatoes, but anything else wrong with fill in the blanks.
00:08:49:13 - 00:09:14:14
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, I think for the most part, a lot of the tomato issues that I've been seeing are pretty common early season tomato issues. A lot of times folks are going to point directly towards a disease like what is infecting or what is wrong with my tomatoes. Maybe the leaves are all curled up or they're all distorted and or they're maybe they're discolored or stunted in their growth.
00:09:14:14 - 00:09:34:16
Speaker 1
They don't have as much vigor in that regard. No, I will say in our neck of the woods, again, this is all very depends on, you know, we haven't gotten rain in McComb, maybe like ten miles down the road. You have got rain where you're at. So it's been very spotty in terms of rainfall. But it's been very dry and and hot.
00:09:34:16 - 00:10:02:01
Speaker 1
And so one of the responses that tomatoes will use when it comes to that hot, dry conditions is called physiological leaf roll. And that's where the leaves actually will curl and roll in on themselves. Very common, especially early in the season with young tomatoes. They're not as established root systems to draw up water and to kind of withstand some of those stresses of the hot weather from the summer.
00:10:02:03 - 00:10:42:19
Speaker 1
That's very possible. That is just a natural response to those tomatoes leaves just rolling up. Another very common issue, unfortunately, is herbicide drift that I've also been seeing on our tomatoes. That's kind of a tough one to identify because there's other like the the leaf roll, which is a natural response, looks very similar to herbicide drift, but it's tomatoes are often planted in backyard gardens and often times backyard lawns are also being sprayed for dandelions and those chemicals can volatilities and drift, especially when it's hot out by globalization of those chemicals are more common when we have temperatures over 85 degrees.
00:10:42:21 - 00:11:10:13
Speaker 1
And does that mean when you spray your lawn in the morning when it's 70 and then the high that afternoon gets to 90, does that mean you're safe? Nope. That's because those chemicals are still on that leaf and they can still vaporize when they get to that 85 degree threshold. So, you know, when when people are wanting to spray their lawns with something in that regard, I say, you know, the label will say often 85 degrees is, you know, that threshold for spraying.
00:11:10:13 - 00:11:36:09
Speaker 1
But, you know, I would that shouldn't that should be the high for the day should be under 85 for that day and probably the next couple of days that you put that product down. Now, when it comes to diseases, a very common thing and one that came in just earlier today after talking with this client, they sent some pictures.
00:11:36:11 - 00:12:00:20
Speaker 1
It looks a lot like a disease known as early blight, early blight I would name because it starts early in the season. So, hey, that's a very clever pathologists very way to go that it's it is a disease that typically affects tomato leaves from the bottom moving up. It could also be sectorial spot though another disease the very similar pattern slightly different in appearance.
00:12:00:20 - 00:12:22:05
Speaker 1
But again, a lot of times symptoms can manifest very closely in appearance to each other when it comes to tomatoes. So it can be very difficult to tell. That's why, you know, I'm I always tell people when you send me a picture of a plant disease, I can guess. But the only way to know for certain is to send off a sample to our our you of I plant clinic.
00:12:22:05 - 00:12:44:09
Speaker 1
That's the only way to, like confirm a diagnosis so yeah early blight or is up to you these diseases they can come in on transplants that maybe you've purchased from the garden center also if you've grown those same plants in that same spot in the garden for years and years, that disease can overwinter on plant debris in the soil or on the ground.
00:12:44:11 - 00:13:08:02
Speaker 1
And so it can build up to more and more higher levels. If you don't clean that out and rotate your garden crops. That's why we always say rotate your garden crops. So if you grow tomatoes in one spot, you really want to rotate the entire nightshade family out of there. Nightshade includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes. That's a lot of things that we grow.
00:13:08:02 - 00:13:36:23
Speaker 1
So maybe throw in cucumbers or lettuces or something else in that spot the following year. And then if you've got the space, you know, you do a three year rotation. Do you like corn, sweet corn or something like that that can help fill in that space or that block of area beans. You know, something that you can break up those disease cycles within a three year cycle usually as can usually recommend three year crop rotation cycles.
00:13:37:00 - 00:13:56:14
Speaker 2
Yeah, in an ideal world, but I think we both recognize that that's easier said than done in home landscapes a lot. And with those foliar diseases, mulching can help with that. If they're overwintering in the soil mulch that will prevent that rain splash. That rain splash could have that spill spores in their splash on the leaves, your mulch, you provide a barrier.
00:13:56:16 - 00:14:01:06
Speaker 2
So not a percent, but it will slow that down quite a bit.
00:14:01:08 - 00:14:29:09
Speaker 1
And I guess and the other reason also why it is important may be to confirm that diagnosis is because a lot of times the foliar diseases are fungal in nature, but there are some bacterial diseases as well. And so if you would spray a fungicide, it might not be as effective against certain bacterial infections, but there are some sprays that will work for fungus and bacteria and so you just have to go to the garden center, read those labels.
00:14:29:14 - 00:14:53:04
Speaker 1
If you are going to use a fungicide on something, you're going to want to prune off those affected leaves. The fungicide is not going to cure the disease. It will just prevent the spread usually to other parts of the plant or at least slow it down. But with those fungicides, read those labels, make sure it's listed for use in a vegetable garden on crops that you are going to eat.
00:14:53:06 - 00:15:07:11
Speaker 1
Follow those post-harvest intervals, and just just make sure you're thoroughly reading that label, because again, we're spraying a pesticide on something that you are going to be eating.
00:15:07:13 - 00:15:20:12
Speaker 2
Now than those fungicides are bacteria sites they don't cure, they they protect. So once it's there, you're not getting rid of it. You just prevent it or reduce the chance of it spreading. Protect that new unaffected foliage.
00:15:20:14 - 00:15:33:09
Speaker 1
As Travis Cleveland famously said on this podcast that fungicides are like sunscreen they can protect from a sunburn, but they cannot cure the sunburn.
00:15:33:11 - 00:15:34:17
Speaker 2
Aloe for that.
00:15:34:19 - 00:15:37:24
Speaker 1
That's right. That's right. That's why I grow so much. Aloe.
00:15:37:24 - 00:15:58:11
Speaker 1
this next question, I have gotten several phone calls about this. I got so many phone calls, I got confused over who I talked to at this point. So this next question is about weeds in asparagus patch. What can I do about weeds? And my asparagus can take it away.
00:15:58:13 - 00:16:22:13
Speaker 2
So at this point in the year, not where fewer options because the the the spruce up, it's leaking out. It's turning. So at this point in the year, we're looking at handling maybe some slight shallow tillage or mulching. And there it is. I'm not aware of any herbicides that you'd be able to spray. That's not going to affect your asparagus.
00:16:22:13 - 00:16:45:16
Speaker 2
So you're harmful, shallow to interesting, making sure you're not hitting those those spears, those firms that have come up because they need to produce an energy kind of like spring bulbs. They need those leaves out. They need to produce that energy store that so they can then produce asparagus for us the following year or mulching. Now, this was early in the year before they emerge.
00:16:45:16 - 00:17:11:22
Speaker 2
You can do an herbicide. If you don't have any asparagus above ground, you get spraying herbicide after your last harvest, after you harvest everything and you go in with an herbicide. As long as you don't have any of that asparagus above ground that's kind of come into contact with that. So do the best you can right now and then next spring you can grow that herbicide or out of things, really get out of control.
00:17:11:24 - 00:17:36:16
Speaker 1
And I don't know how they got my number, but I had two commercial asparagus growers get in touch with me and that that world is way different than backyard asparagus patches. If you see a commercial asparagus field, I mean, those are mostly there's no vegetation there. They they spray and they cultivated so that they're not there's nothing on there except for asparagus.
00:17:36:16 - 00:18:00:06
Speaker 1
So it's kind of a bare soil situation in many cases. So that that's a little bit of a different scenario. But it's tough controlling asparagus after like because, yeah, you need it to photosynthesize. It's got to get the energy so you can harvest it next year. And so my big recommendation, at least of the noncommercial folks, was, yeah, mulch, mulch, mulch.
00:18:00:08 - 00:18:29:13
Speaker 1
You can mow, you know, if, if your asparagus, you know, is still pretty vigorous, still looks pretty healthy, maybe you can mow it all down and and possibly spot spray herbicide again got to read that label, make sure that that can be applied in that situation. But for the most part it is going to be, you know, and cultivation and weeding and mulching.
00:18:29:15 - 00:18:32:01
Speaker 2
And and don't use salt.
00:18:32:03 - 00:18:33:18
Speaker 1
No, no.
00:18:33:20 - 00:18:55:05
Speaker 2
So asparagus can tolerate higher salt levels, but you run the risk of really messing up your soil using salt. So you see that maybe not as much as it used to. We still see that thrown out there sometimes as a recommendation for salt, for weed management, asparagus. And don't do it. Save yourself the headache down the line. Yeah, potentially.
00:18:55:07 - 00:19:11:01
Speaker 1
The old timers I was talking to about this, they, you know, and I mentioned the salt thing because I thought, they're going to ask can I put salt on there? And they already said, absolutely not. We've already dealt with this. We, we, we salted our asparagus patch and it killed it off. And so, you know, over time.
00:19:11:01 - 00:19:12:19
Speaker 1
So they knew they knew.
00:19:12:19 - 00:19:21:24
Speaker 2
All right. Our next question here is a long question. So my line is then what kind of fertilizer should I put down right now?
00:19:22:01 - 00:19:44:24
Speaker 1
Nothing. Next question. I'll elaborate slightly. Most folks here in Illinois are going to be growing a cool season lawn, which means the hot, dry weather is going to be stressing that lawn and is going to be pushing it into its summer dormancy. A lot of our lawns are, at least here in McComb. Can are you seeing lawns going dormant?
00:19:44:24 - 00:19:47:18
Speaker 1
You know where they're losing that bright green spring color?
00:19:47:20 - 00:19:49:23
Speaker 2
Yeah. Never starting to go dormant.
00:19:50:21 - 00:20:15:02
Speaker 1
So if you would put fertilizer down right now, you are not feeding your turf grass. You are feeding every other plant that is currently actively growing, which for a lawn would be considered the weeds. So if you have a thin lawn right now, there's there's not too much that we can do at a cool, seasoned lawn as we're entering the heat of the summer.
00:20:15:07 - 00:20:38:03
Speaker 1
Throwing down grass seed is just going to possibly stimulate germination at a time of year when those cool season turf seedlings will be met with hot, dry weather and they'll just burn up and die in the mid-summer. I have put down sod and heat like this. You can do it, but you got to really stay on top of the water.
00:20:38:05 - 00:21:02:16
Speaker 1
It's it's a lot of work, but it can be done. The SOD does kind of act as a mulch layer over the soil, which insulates it a little bit better than just seeding onto bare dirt. And so it can retain some soil. I will say that. So you can actually hold a little bit extra moisture underneath that sod layer if you want to go that route.
00:21:02:18 - 00:21:13:23
Speaker 1
But it's it's really tough to start a cool season lawn in the middle of the summer. I've done it, done it a couple times. Just got to keep an eye on the water, make sure you don't dry out, burn up.
00:21:14:00 - 00:21:15:15
Speaker 2
Don't want to do it again.
00:21:15:17 - 00:21:40:10
Speaker 1
I would not want I would not do it again. No, no. And also, I guess the extra thing to say is that if your lawn is irrigated, it has a dedicated, dedicated in-ground irrigation system that kicks on once or a couple times a week. You could fertilize right now because that or because that lawn is green and actively growing.
00:21:40:12 - 00:21:52:13
Speaker 1
That is the only situation where you could put down a fertilizer in June on a cool season lawn, as if it has a dedicated irrigation system that is keeping it green and growing all summer long.
00:21:52:13 - 00:22:04:16
Speaker 1
Well, Ken, time to leave the lawn and head to the barn and yeah, another common question that I see too is about carpenter bees.
00:22:04:16 - 00:22:13:05
Speaker 1
So in this instance, carpenter bees are nesting in the wood of my pole barn. Well, that's kind of scary. Is that. What should we do about that?
00:22:13:07 - 00:22:18:18
Speaker 2
You could substitute pole barn with deck, garage siding, etc., etc., etc..
00:22:18:22 - 00:22:21:05
Speaker 1
Yep. Pergola? Yeah.
00:22:21:07 - 00:22:43:22
Speaker 2
Yep. So? So carpenter bees are going to excavate their nests in what are usually soft woods like pine, things like that. They they tend to prefer over her hardwoods. So they'll dig that owner, they'll turn right angle and they'll kind of go with the green building their nests one, you know, nest. And they're probably not going to do a lot of damage, but they will reuse these and they can get larger and they will expand them.
00:22:43:24 - 00:23:10:22
Speaker 2
So you do run the risk of that, compromising the integrity of that wood if they're left to go. And we're talking years and years here. So with this, once they're there in there, they're going to be looking using a probably more likely an insecticide dust the the entrance hall when they're spraying something in there. So when that be is coming in and out or the bees are coming in and now they're picking that up and against the dust, the groom themselves who eat that and eventually that'll kill them.
00:23:10:24 - 00:23:29:23
Speaker 2
You don't want to plug that hole up right away because if they're still actively using it, they'll either remove that plug or they'll just excavate a new hole to get out. So you need to kill them before you plug up the hole. So kill them, wait several weeks, then plug up the hole. And the future painting the wood will help prevent painting.
00:23:29:23 - 00:23:52:19
Speaker 2
Varnishing. Something like that will help discourage them from using that. Those pieces of wood, they don't like those painted surfaces. They'll try to go find something else. You can try offering alternative nesting sites. So if you've got a dead tree that's not posing a risk to people or property, why that caveat or leave a stump behind that they could utilize?
00:23:52:21 - 00:24:04:07
Speaker 2
You can get some non pressure treated wood and rubber offer them some sort of alternative nesting site to the more desirable areas that you want to keep them out of.
00:24:04:09 - 00:24:22:06
Speaker 1
I, I love carpenter bees. They're my my favorite of the bees them in the bumblebees, but I love the male carpenter bees the best because they act aggressive and they're they can't do anything to you. I take my finger and I just push on them. I'm like going, get out of here.
00:24:22:08 - 00:24:24:13
Speaker 2
Just make sure it's familiar doing that, too.
00:24:24:15 - 00:24:33:21
Speaker 1
That's true. That's true. I think you have an article about carpenter bees, too. Can we can link below in the description for for, you know, people want to read more about them.
00:24:33:23 - 00:24:34:17
Speaker 2
Yes.
00:24:34:17 - 00:24:51:21
Speaker 2
All right. Our last question here is about everybody's favorite arachnid arachnids. Yeah, where can I get tested? Where can I get ticks tested to see if they are carrying a disease?
00:24:51:23 - 00:25:34:18
Speaker 1
You know, there's two things out in the world that I. I kill with extreme prejudice. Mosquitoes and ticks. They they have seen no mercy from me. So as someone who's had Lyme disease before, I am very vigilant about ticks, and I think I recently wrote an article about this where, you know, it is important to when you are bitten by a tick to get the tick identified, what is the tick that bit you that way it gives you what's, you know, the species of tick, because there are many species of ticks out there when you know the species, you know the potential or what the diseases are out there.
00:25:34:20 - 00:25:54:21
Speaker 1
And I actually linked a couple labs, I think, where you could get the ticks tested. But when we were talking before the show and that's not that's not a recommendation from the CDC, so I might need to revise that article and remove those those links or maybe at least check into those links, make sure that they're reputable labs.
00:25:54:23 - 00:26:19:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. So this is when I actually didn't know until the I got the question was a week or two ago. So so that people are you know they're concerned you get there by a tick. There are several diseases that they can carry. I mean, people contacting us about where can I get these ticks tested? And actually the CDC does not recommend testing ticks and I'll just read from their website and we can link to this too.
00:26:19:09 - 00:26:41:23
Speaker 2
So people who have removed a tick sometimes wonder if they should have it tested for evidence of infection. Although some commercial groups offer testing in general, this is not recommended. So again, like like you mentioned in your article, there are labs that will do this, but the CDC does not recommend this because our laboratories that conduct tick testing are not required to have high standards of quality control use by clinical diagnostic laboratories.
00:26:42:00 - 00:27:04:19
Speaker 2
Results of tick testing should not be used for treatment decisions. Positive results showing that ticks contained disease causing organism do not necessarily mean that you have been infected, so they may not have been attached long enough to actually transmit that the pathogen to you. Negative results can lead to a false assurance. You may have been unknowingly bitten by a different tick that was infected.
00:27:04:19 - 00:27:26:22
Speaker 2
So, you know, you test, it comes back negative, you just ignore that. But headache and those muscle aches you're getting which another ticket of transmitted something to you. If you have been infected, you will probably develop symptoms before results of the tick test are available. If you do become ill, you should not wait for tick testing results before beginning appropriate treatments.
00:27:26:24 - 00:27:50:02
Speaker 2
And again they recommend identifying the ticks so you know what diseases they you should potentially be on the lookout for. So, you know, if you are bitten by a tick, obviously you want to remove that. Make sure you're grasping the head as close to your your body as possible. Pull that straight out. Don't twist, don't burn them out and smother them, although there's other things.
00:27:50:04 - 00:28:09:21
Speaker 2
And then if you are bitten, if you develop a rash or a fever within several weeks and this is not necessarily like the next couple of days, this is can be down the line a little bit. See your doctor, tell them both tick bites when it occurred where you most likely got it. Ideally, if you do remove a tick that's attached, try to save that.
00:28:09:21 - 00:28:28:24
Speaker 2
I know I've heard of people that have a notebook to remove the tape it to their put the date where they were and they've just got a notebook of ticks. They fold off themselves. So again, if you have rash fever or anything like that, muscle aches and you've been bitten by a tick, I contact a doctor about that.
00:28:29:01 - 00:29:00:12
Speaker 1
Yeah. So yes, don't necessarily rely on the tick testing that you might get back. It could needlessly expose you to some pretty hard medicine because when when I had it, they give you the strongest antibiotics that human beings have developed to try to knock it out. So and if you don't have it, if you're not sick with a tick borne disease, those antibiotics could make you still sick with other things.
00:29:00:12 - 00:29:17:11
Speaker 1
So yeah, because it wipes everything out in your gut and your body. So, yes, make sure that you are working with a physician, your doctor, when it comes to responding to tick bites and any symptoms that might develop afterwards.
00:29:17:13 - 00:29:36:24
Speaker 2
And I don't know, like in a in a clinical setting, you know, if hospitals or health departments would be capable of testing for that. But obviously you need to consult with the doctor if they've got the capabilities, they've probably got, you know, the certifications stuff. And this is more at least my understanding for you, this is more kind of the more the commercial.
00:29:36:24 - 00:29:39:15
Speaker 2
I'm just going to send this off maybe tested.
00:29:39:17 - 00:30:00:09
Speaker 1
I, I think so. Yeah. I think there are some commercial labs out there, especially on the East Coast for ticks are definitely more prevalent, especially in the northeast where you know, a lot of folks are having to deal with ticks up in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, areas like that. I think some of the labs I linked to, one of them was the university lab might have been Rutgers.
00:30:00:11 - 00:30:26:01
Speaker 1
So hopefully they're reputable, I would imagine. But Rutgers, we love you. You're great. But yes, I know that when I when I was sick, the lab results are actually being sent up to the Mayo Clinic up in Rochester, Minnesota. So our local health department was not able to do any testing or anything like that. But those were my human tests, not the not tests for the tick.
00:30:26:03 - 00:30:34:15
Speaker 1
Yeah, Yeah. And I know our our local health department does not test for ticks. They don't they don't send them out. They don't do any.
00:30:34:17 - 00:30:41:07
Speaker 2
Mounting Morgan County does either. Yeah. As always, if in doubt, talk to a doctor. A medical doctor.
00:30:41:09 - 00:30:45:23
Speaker 1
That's right. That's right. We are not doctors though. I do play one on TV.
00:30:45:23 - 00:31:04:22
Speaker 1
All right. Well, that was a lot of great information about early summer gardening questions, even though I feel like these questions normally start popping up later in the summer, or at least I feel like it's already mid-July, but it's not mid-June. So, yeah, that was a lot of great information there.
00:31:04:22 - 00:31:22:00
Speaker 1
So we will leave a lot of links below to different articles and things like that for you in the show Description. Well, the good growing podcasts production of University of Illinois Extension edited this week by me, Kristin Roth. Hey, special. Thank you, Ken. Thanks for hanging out with me today, getting some of the questions together that we've been answering.
00:31:22:04 - 00:31:28:21
Speaker 1
And, you know, just seeing how we handle things between Morgan County and McDonough County.
00:31:28:23 - 00:31:32:07
Speaker 2
Yes. Thank you. It's nice getting out of the heat for a moment. So.
00:31:32:09 - 00:31:34:01
Speaker 1
Yeah, now back to it.
00:31:34:03 - 00:31:35:18
Speaker 2
Had about.
00:31:35:20 - 00:31:36:16
Speaker 1
Exactly.
00:31:36:18 - 00:31:41:10
Speaker 2
And we're going to kind of do this next week, do a garden bite, I think.
00:31:41:12 - 00:32:03:01
Speaker 1
Yeah, we shall do kind of this again next week. It's a garden by time. So while Ken and I are out watering plants, you can still be enjoying some excellent gardening landscape horticultural advice. Are we are we advice givers? I don't know if I call myself that advice Givers.
00:32:03:03 - 00:32:04:17
Speaker 2
Start advice column here.
00:32:05:08 - 00:32:21:21
Speaker 1
man. Yes, Yes, dear Chris, here's here's what I would do. Anyway, I'll cut all that out. Well, listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening. Or if you're watching us on YouTube, watching and as always, keep on growing.