Q: I had several large pine trees removed last fall due to beetle infestations. I still have seven pine trees in the wooded part of my backyard. They are maybe 12-15 feet from each other at the closest. Not close to any neighbor’s pine trees. How do I keep the beetles from the remaining trees? — Steve Vester, Cobb County
A: Those are healthy insects in the stump, but I don’t think they are the same insects that attacked your pine trees. The sawdust (frass) probably came from the southern pine sawyer, who delights in boring under the bark and through the heartwood of newly killed pine trees. They are large grubs that produce substantial frass at the base of pine tree stumps.
Your original pines were probably attacked by the southern pine beetle. Once they invade a pine tree, they put out pheromones to attract other pine beetles, which then go into adjacent pine trees. It is not practical to spray insecticide on the remaining seven trees. The best thing is to keep them watered so they can drown the invaders with sap.
Q: We have a vegetable garden, and my husband is drying small onions in the house. We don’t have a shed or carport, and the garage is too hot right now. Will this attract mice or bugs? — Irene, email
A: Yes, drying onions can attract bugs. The curing is necessary to make the onion form a hard “shell” around the interior of the onion. This minimizes spoilage. This process takes two to four weeks, until the top of each onion is brown and the outer leaves are dry and papery. If you judge that they are sufficiently cured, you can alert your husband, and he can move them to cool, dry winter storage ... hopefully, where you don’t smell them all the time.
Q: We had four arborvitae, now 40 feet tall, planted between our driveway and our house years ago as a privacy screen. Can they be topped and saved, or can they be trimmed so as not to hang over our home? — Jim O’Brien, email
A: I don’t see a chance of pruning or saving the arborvitae. If you cut them down, even just by half, the root system will be huge compared to the remaining foliage. The interior dead, brown foliage will not sprout at all, and the green foliage left will turn yellow and die. My suggestion is to pull up and remove the arborvitae, being very careful to see that no roots are under the foundation to avoid damaging it. Then decide what your screening needs are presently — either plants or fencing.
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