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A little debris must fall

User
9 years ago

And that is just what it did....catching me smack dab on the eyeball. What was so terrible about it, the hit came in the middle of the first tour ever of ZKathy through my hosta garden. What a revolting development!

Used a whole bottle of Visine to try to flush it out, and sprayed the kitchen sink nozzle in it as well, but no relief.

Kathy was a trouper though, and we finished the tour, I thanked her for the bottle of vino Italiano blanco (she learned her manners from Ken I do believe), and it was such a nice time for me...even this late in the season. My garden is not quite ready for prime time which passed about mid July really. But, having another person to talk with and walk with was a true delight.

As a grandma, Kathy is certainly youthful in appearance.

Well, upshot of the eye injury was a visit to the best eye doc in the southeast, Dr. Duffy, and I did that last Tuesday. He said I had to contusions on the eyeball, and the lid was scratched. I got drops for day and night, and return this afternoon for the progress exam.

I attach a photo of what is falling from my pecan trees now that the bag worms are going dormant too. Notice the tree leaves are reduced to nothing but veins, which makes me wonder if these worms are also the culprits eating some of my hosta leaves.

Comments (13)

  • DelawareDonna
    9 years ago

    Mocc - Sorry to hear about that scary injury to your eye, and hope that the injury is progressing well. On the bright side, I'm glad you had a nice garden tour with Kathy. I bet she was awed to see your beautiful collection of hosta, and I'm sure it was great to share info with a fellow hostanista.

    DD

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    We had a weird webworm this year. It consumed the hackberry trees, but didn't touch the pecans. I don't usually have much problem with the webworms on the pecans. They are usually closer to White Rock Lake (anyone recognize the signs of alkalinity in that name?) , which is the low point in East Dallas. If I do, I use the pole pruner to open up the webs, which allows the birds to eat the worms. Since Hackberry are junk trees, no one cares if the webworms eat them.

    Sorry to hear about your eye injury, Mocc. Let us know how you do.

    Sounds like you and zKathy had a good visit.

    bk

  • sherrygirl zone5 N il
    9 years ago

    Bummer Mocc! Hope you are better soon! Gardening isnt supposed to be a dangerous hobby.

    Sherry

  • sandyslopes z5 n. UT
    9 years ago

    When I read your title I thought it would be about debris from having your roof done. So sorry to hear about your eye. What are the odds something like that would happen? How strange. Make sure to baby that eyeball until it gets completely healed. Too bad about the timing and that happening on your garden tour with zkathy, but I bet your gardens are still looking pretty good even for October.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    Geez, Mocc, that was a close call - sooo sorry this happened to you!!! Hope your eye will heal quickly!

    How exciting to hear zKathy and you met, that she actually saw your hostas up close and personal! I'm envious to the nines! You know, I think it's wonderful making new "friends" on a hosta forum...but....having or creating an opportunity to meet a member in person is tops!

    I hope Kathy shares her special experience with us. ;-)

    Heal quickly, our dear Mocc, y'hear?!

  • User
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks, Jo and Sandy and Sherry. It was too close for comfort, since I treasure my eyesight. I went to the eye doc again yesterday, and he says it is mending and I could read 2 more lines on the eye chart. He never had an injury from "bagworm debris" before, and made that note on my chart.

    At this point I am thinking of cutting down--or killing--the smallest of 3 pecan trees in our yard. I don't want to deal with the bagworms in a wider area of the garden.

    Even the County Agent says there is nothing to be done about the bagworms except climb the trees and cut them out, since we are not commercial growers with access to high powered pesticides. I was hoping the moles or unknown critters getting my mulch in upheaval was after the worms, which travel down the trees in the fall to burrow into the ground, then somehow get back into the trees to create the gauzy looking bags which give them their names.

    The Co.Agent did say I could try Sevin Dust, but I don't know if I want to do that. Will that kill the lightning bugs and the good insects along with the bagworms?

  • hostatakeover swMO
    9 years ago

    So sorry to hear about your injury, Mocc. Terrible timing but thank goodness your poor eyeball is on the mend! Glad zKathy was so understanding.

  • zkathy z7a NC
    9 years ago

    Mocc, I'm so glad to hear your eye is mending! I have been worried about it.

    DH and I met friends for a weekend at the beach in Pensacola, then I put him on a flight home and stopped in Mobile to see Mocc's garden on the way to New Orleans to see my family. I was as excited about the garden tour as I was about the rest of the trip. (Maybe more but don't tell anybody.)

    Mocc's garden is even more beautiful than it looks in digital. She has created a calming and peaceful place with attractive views and pleasant resting areas. Her shade trellis is brilliantly designed and executed.

    I didn't even think of taking pictures. Her three graces were still fresh looking and I did take out my phone to add Gosun Sunproof to my wish list. It looked like it had just unfurled! Pretty good for a hosta in a subtropical autumn.

    Thank you, Barbara, for sharing your garden with me. Keep those eyes protected!

    Kathy

  • User
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you, Kathy, for SEEING what I was trying to achieve with the garden layout. It does make it hard to comprehend from individual photos how it can be contained in a space 25 x 100 feet. The garden is definitely not a LAWN nor a veggie style patch with rows or beds. With so many POTS everywhere, I try to obscure the unattractive side of it all. Yet soon comes the season when only the mechanics of it will show, similar to the aftermath of a hurricane, pots lying askew and tipped, no lovely greenery, brown crumpled pecan leaves covering everything. No lovely white snow to come and lay a blessing over it all.

    Indeed I appreciate that, and apologize for requiring your help at times to remain vertical as we walked and looked and chatted. What a revolting development THAT was, to handicap my dominant eye. I had on my safety glasses then, but pushed up on my forehead, lot of good that did!

    It was my pleasure to have you, my excitement at presenting the garden to someone with knowledge and appreciation of hosta, and understanding that their time was quickly fading, gave my soul ease. It counts for a lot. Come again, any time.

    Gosan Sunproof on Oct15 2014.

    And here is Gosan Sunproof taken Sept 2013.It is a durable addition to the garden.

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    So, how's the eye?

    bk

  • santamiller
    9 years ago

    What a freak deal. Sorry to hear about your eye but glad you are on the mend. Of course you are never going to get hit in the eye with safety glasses ON! Had you been wearing them on your eyes instead of your head then the debris would have fallen on your head. :)

  • bettylu_zone6a
    9 years ago

    If the bagworms climb down the trees, presumably they enter the soil at the trunk/soil junction, couldn't you just do a ring of pesticide there?

  • User
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Bettylu, what you suggest was my thought in the matter too. So I called the county agent and asked about it. The response was less than encouraging. Essentially, the fact that I am not a COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE, means I do not have access to the chemicals which will exterminate the "worms" once they enter the soil.

    If you are familiar with the acres of pecan orchards or groves once visible all around the city of Mobile, you will recall the trunks of the trees generally painted white up to breast height. I thought, as a child, that they were painted white to look elegant and to give the "old time southern" look such as the trunks of live oaks going along a long allee or driveway to some columned mansion far from the road. As an adult, I idly mused about there being a purpose other than ornamental, but had no knowledge of bagworms or other such pests. Until recent years, I never saw bagworms in the pecan trees. Now, I think that many older trees are afflicted by them, since the groves were broken up and the land sold to developers who built homes, residences, and thus no longer classed as "commercial property." Thus no help to be had for treating pest issues.

    I'm still not convinced that bagworms do not take bites out of my hosta leaves. The way the leaves looked this year, same skeletal appearance as the pecan leaves chomped into wispy skeletons of veins and not much else except the ghostly webs making the incubation chamber for the next generation of BAGWORMS.

    I'm about to ring the youngest/smallest pecan tree to kill it humanely, leaving the stem standing for a birdfeeder post.
    After last night's cold front came through, most of the brown leaves fell so the three pecans stand bare in the garden.
    Perhaps I can get the work done this weekend, like George Washington and his little hatchet taking down that cherry tree, that is no lie!

    Pardon that it took me a while to respond. This week the demolition of part of my house began, and I've been sort of distracted from gardening. The cement mixer truck backing into the New Orleans style courtyard garden destroyed all semblance of a lawn, looks more like a plowed cornfield now. But at least we have peace this weekend while the cement/concrete foundation dries.