NEWS
August 10, 2009
Cool, wet summer promotes fungus growth Maryland agriculture officials say the cool, wet summer is leaving the state's grain crops vulnerable to fungus damage. Agriculture Department spokeswoman Sue DuPont says farmers noticed a problem with the crops about a month ago. The University of Maryland agriculture extension office says the state chemist's office has been distributing test kits to farmers across Maryland. Testing has found increased levels of a fungus known as vomitoxin across the state with the bulk reported in Southern Maryland.
NEWS
By Frank D. Roylance | April 5, 2009
White-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal infection that has devastated bat populations in New York and New England in the past two years, has now spread to three states on Maryland's borders - and seems poised to strike here next, biologists say. "We are surrounded on all sides," said Aimee Haskew, a faculty research assistant at the University of Maryland's Appalachian Lab in Frostburg. "It's like a guillotine hanging above your neck." An outbreak here could destroy one of the largest hibernating populations surviving in the East of the globally rare Eastern small-footed myotis and gradually wipe out larger bat populations that help to control Maryland's insect pests.
NEWS
By Ellen Nibali and David Clement | September 1, 2007
A gang of caterpillars is taking out the leaves on one branch of my oak tree. It's too late for gypsy moths, and there's no tent or web, so what are they? Orangestriped oakworms are extremely gregarious. These caterpillars of a native moth start out as pale-yellow larvae and eventually become black and yellow-orange striped. They have two short black spines, like antennae, behind their heads. Typically, they feed on one branch at a time and don't do enough damage to merit chemical control.
NEWS
By Ellen Nibali and David Clement | May 26, 2007
When should I prune, fertilize and transplant? I have flowers, fruits and, this year, vegetables. I get really confused! Our free newsletter features a monthly gardening calendar that should prove helpful. Call or e-mail us to subscribe. We also offer turf-care schedules based on University of Maryland recommendations and fertilizing schedules for just about all plant categories. I'm losing a blue spruce a year. Branches start dying at the base and this continues to the top. What can I do?
NEWS
By Ellen Nibali and David Clement | February 3, 2007
Our old red maple fell in a storm. When we had it removed, we were told it had root fungus and we should not plant a replacement tree on the same spot. I planned to replace this tree with a tulip poplar. How close to the original spot can I safely plant a sapling? Because you are planting a different species, you can plant in the same spot, but do move the plant a few feet away from the ground-up stump. Chips from the stump mix with the soil and bind up nitrogen as they decompose. Your new tree will need soil nitrogen for growth.
NEWS
By Ted Shelsby | November 5, 2006
Asian soybean rust, a contagious fungal disease that has devastated soybean crops in other parts of the world, has come dangerously close to making its way to Maryland for the first time. The fungus, which can reduce a soybean field's yield by as much as 80 percent if left untreated, was recently spotted as far north as Virginia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While an infestation can have a serious economic impact on farming, it poses no threat to humans. The USDA has been tracking the spread of the plant-killing disease since it was discovered in Japan in 1902.
NEWS
By Abigail Tucker | August 30, 2006
The mycologists are merry. The sun is shining, and they've snagged the van from the roundworm lab downstairs. Behind them lie the fortresslike walls of Beltsville's U.S. National Fungus Collections; ahead, the open road, winding toward Catoctin Mountain in Western Maryland, and acre upon acre of rust fungus. The leader of this collecting trip is Cathie Aime; she's the one at the wheel. For someone who creeps through forests as slowly as slime mold (mushroom-hunting in the jungles of Guyana, she covers just 50 square meters a day)
NEWS
By JOHN BIEMER | April 28, 2006
A devastating fungus is sweeping the planet, wiping out entire populations of amphibians at such a rate that biologists are helping pull together a huge "Noah's Ark" project to capture frogs, toads and salamanders and put them in safe places. Various factors already have combined to cause more than 120 amphibian species to vanish since 1980, in what one biologist has called "one of the largest extinction spasms for vertebrates in history." A third of the world's nearly 6,000 amphibian species are threatened - their populations weak and susceptible to disease.
NEWS
By Jon Traunfeld and Ellen Nibali | June 19, 2005
The rabbit population in my neighborhood grows and grows. They decimated my vegetables last year. Trapping, mothballs and hot peppers failed. Any suggestions? Your best deterrent may be a rabbit fence such as chicken wire, 3 feet high with the bottom secured tightly to the ground or buried 6 inches below ground level. Some people have success using repellents such as dried blood, human hair, predator urines and other commercial repellants. Repellants need to be rotated and reapplied after rain.
NEWS
By Ted Shelsby | March 2, 2005
Maryland farmers are on the lookout for a contagious fungal disease that could devastate future harvests across the state. The disease, called soybean rust, or Asian soybean rust, has been steadily creeping toward Maryland from the Deep South since it was discovered in Louisiana a little more than a year ago. In other parts of the world, including southern Africa and South America, it has reduced soybean yields by as much as 80 percent when left untreated....