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Identification, lifecycle, and management strategies for common pests and diseases in our region.
The codling moth larva bores into apples and pears, feeding on the core while the fruit looks fine from outside. Learn the one-day management window, degree-day timing for the Puget Sound region, and how to combine sanitation, bagging, CpGV, and targeted sprays to protect your harvest.
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Thick silken webs in your cherry or crabapple every spring are tent caterpillars. Learn the three species in the Puget Sound region, why outbreaks crash on their own, when intervention actually helps, and why doing nothing is usually the strongest long-term play.
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Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) infects 200+ species and thrives in Puget Sound's cool, wet springs. Identification on fruit, flowers, and vegetables; the wetness-duration infection model; cultural controls that outperform sprays; and the fungicide resistance story reshaping professional programs.
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Apple scab is the most reliable fungal disease on any Malus in the Puget Sound lowlands. Identification, the Mills table, cultivar resistance ratings, fall sanitation, and protectant vs. kickback spray timing for Western Washington fruit growers and landscapers.
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Bronze birch borer kills stressed birches from the canopy down, and understanding the delay between drought stress and visible damage is the key to saving trees that can still be saved. GDD timing, resistance chemistry, treatment thresholds, and species substitution for the Puget Sound lowlands.
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Armored and soft scale insects look similar on bark but require completely different management. Learn the field test that separates them, when crawlers emerge by GDD, and why ant exclusion may be the most effective single intervention.
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Why Western Washington's wet winters create perfect conditions for Phytophthora, and how to protect your landscape.
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Learn the difference between cosmetic leaf spot anthracnose and destructive dogwood canker disease. Regional strategy for the Pacific Northwest.
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Aphids are everywhere in our region's gardens. The best response is usually no response at all. Here is how to tell when that changes.
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Armillaria root rot kills trees silently for years before symptoms appear. There is no cure. Learn what happens underground, why prevention is your only option, and how to protect your plantings.
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Those strange galls on your maple leaves and blistered pear foliage are caused by mites too small to see. Most of the time, the plant does not care. Here is what you need to know.
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Most spring shoot blight on pears and apples in the Pacific Northwest is Pseudomonas, not fire blight. Learn to distinguish the two and manage them correctly.
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Those winding trails and blotches inside your leaves look alarming. On most landscape plants, leafminers are cosmetic damage that requires no treatment. Here is how to tell the difference.
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Root weevils are the most common landscape pest in this region. The notched leaves are cosmetic. The larvae eating your roots are not. Here is what to do about both.
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Spider mites explode in hot, dry conditions. In this region, that means July and August are your risk window. Here is how to spot them early and what actually works.
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Verticillium wilt lives in soil for decades and has no cure. In Western Washington, it dominates maple disease diagnoses. Learn to recognize it, manage around it, and choose plants that resist it.
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Kelsey's dogwood is one of the most reliable native shrubs you can plant in Western Washington. This compact cultivar of red-osier dogwood thrives in rain gardens, mass plantings, and riparian...
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You're standing in your orchard in mid-March, watching your apple and pear trees prepare to leaf out. The buds are swelling, and you remember that dormant oil spray you meant to apply. You pick up...
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If you've noticed your landscape getting harder to manage or watched a single plant gradually take over a section of your yard, you've likely encountered an invasive species. In Western Washington,...
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Powdery mildew in the Pacific Northwest: why it is naturally suppressed here, which plants need treatment, and how to manage it without overspraying.
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You're looking at your lawn in late February and noticing irregular brown patches. The grass is thin, dead sections are expanding, and you're starting to panic. Someone tells you it's crane flies....
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