Greetings and welcome!
Spring is springing in a big way now. The green explosion is well under way.
The forest floor is now covered in a new green carpet. All of the trees have emerging leaves now, so get a look while you can. Those woods will be filling in dramatically in the next week or so.
The wildflowers are going off too. In the past week I have seen marsh marigolds, shooting stars, the trillium are just getting started, and the really tiny flowers in the lawn are getting plentiful. The choke cherry trees are in bloom and can be seen just about everywhere. On the domesticated side the flowering crab and lilacs are in bloom too.
The grass will need cutting soon. It is getting long in fast growing areas. When I was in Crivitz yesterday I saw some lawns that were getting long enough that they almost had to be cut.
Our wonderful variety of birds have returned. People are seeing oriels, grosbeaks, humming birds, sand hill cranes and a lot more.
The black bears are becoming a common sight. They will be very hungry with no berries and no grubs to eat, so bird feeders are a prime target at this time of year. Many are seen with 3 or 4 cubs, so we are not short on them. Be sure to store your food and food smell stuff like grills safely.
The spring isn’t lost on the insect world. The gnats started getting thick last week. My first mosquitoes were about two weeks ago. I got my first wood tick yesterday.
The gypsy moth caterpillars have hatched and are little tiny guys for now. It is going to be a really really bad year for them this year.
I sprayed my egg masses (hundreds of them) with a broad spectrum residual insecticide about two weeks ago and I haven’t seen a single one hatch. That’s good because they had a real party planned for my big oak trees. I am still going to respray them and the tree trunks to get ahead of any stragglers.
Here is the stuff that I use. https://diypestcontrol.com/suspend-sc-insecticide . It works for lady beetles, spiders, ants, and just about everything except for one species of German cockroach. It is also safe for people and pets.
A more common treatment is a spray that they call BT. It is a bacillus that makes the leaves toxic to the caterpillars. The bad news is that you need to get it onto the leaves. This means aerial spraying for big trees or large forests.
A treatment that I found about this year is soil drenching. They go around the tree’s drip line and make a series of small holes. They then put a certain termite focused insecticide and an adjuvant in water and drench the soil. The adjuvant helps to spread the treatment to all of the roots.This gets absorbed by the tree and it becomes a systematic insecticide a lot like an immunization.
From the article selling the product.. https://bugspray.com/catalog/insecticide/liquid/prothor-sc
“SOIL DRENCHING DIRECTIONS:
When soil drenching shrubs and trees, use .1 – .2 oz per inch of tree diameter. So 1-2 oz per 10? of tree width. Add the chemical to a 5 gallon bucket filled with 3-4 gallons of water. Make 4-8 holes for every bucket you need to use so for a tree 20? wide, you should use two buckets and 10-15 holes around the tree. Use a stake, something like rebar, to create holes 1-2 feet deep. The liquid should then be poured out over these holes slow enough so the holes will absorb the fluid evenly. Drench within the “drip line” of the tree limbs but not closer than twice the width of the trees trunk to the base of the tree. So if the drip line is 10 feet out from the trunk and the trunk is 2 feet wide. drenching 4-6 feet out from the trunk would be fine.”
Here is the best price that I have found- $71.50. https://store.parsonspestcontrol.com/prothor-sc2-termite-and-ant-control.aspx
The stuff to help spread it is used in equal amounts as the insecticide. That is here.. https://bugspray.com/catalog/insecticide/additive/spread-x-boost-adjuvant
A 32 oz jug of that is $30.
So I have $100+ shipping invested.
Using a strong mix my 30” diameter oak would take 3 buckets of water and 6oz of each ingredient. It comes in a 28oz jar. At that point I can do roughly 5 30” diameter oaks for about $100. At $20 a tree I’m not going to do the whole woods but I would try it on the big oaks right by the house.
I have also heard about a super tiny wasp that raids their egg masses. I haven’t had a chance to research those at all so I just don’t know much about it.
We have our first big event this weekend, the ATV Fire Ride. A couple of hundred ATVs and UTVs are going to gather at the Silver Cliff picnic grounds and go for a ride. There are timed departures so that the don’t just swamp the local trails and businesses with hundreds of people. Afterward there is a big party with drawings and prizes back at the picnic grounds. Cozzy’s Polaris in Marinette donated a brand new ATV to be raffled off. The proceeds go to the Town of Stephenson VFD.
According to their Facebook page there are over 300 people going and over 1,700 people interested. Here is a link. https://www.facebook.com/events/325349410506036
We have some new businesses to be aware of. The frist one up is the new golf course in Lakewood. It is just before the McCaslin golf course on Hwy F. They have a driving range and a greenhouse there. Now they have developed a full on 18 hole pitch & put course. Good luck & best wishes! Here is a link. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=784772783843112
One of my favorite trail stops has changed hands. The Northwoods Bar on Northway Rd (formerly Hwy A) and Benson Lake Rd. has closed and is in the process of reopening under new ownership. The same thing is going on at the Riverside Bar in Crivitz.
One last new business.. There is now a bulk materials yard at Hwy X & A where you can buy dirt, gravel and other similar materials. They had a big banner but our harsh weather took it down. They are still building it and eventually it will have signs and gates.
Apparently some people had the mistaken idea that some unknown benevolent organization came along and set that up just for them to have these materials free for the taking. No, it is a business and you have to pay for that stuff.
We had some spectacular northern lights over the past week. There are tons of pictures on the Facebook group Crivitz Area Talk. We are in an unusually active time for sunspots, so if you missed out there will likely be other chances to see the show.
Always looking to exit on a high note, here is a picture from Sunday night’s sunset.
Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB
