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I probably should have saved this horror movie for Halloween week, but I’ve been seeing a LOT of Japanese burrowing crickets around my house — and indoors — this past month or so.
The first time was in late August, when I got the lovely alert above from my video doorbell, alerting me I had a visitor. It looked huge in the clip, so I was afraid to open the door, but it turned out it was just about an inch long.
I’ve since been catching two or three a week inside my house. The population seems to have gone from zero to 100 since last year. Anybody else?
Their presence has been recorded in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Washington DC, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The crickets are believed to have hitched a ride to North America along with ornamental plants from Asia in the 1950s and tend to hang around landscaped areas (like our gardens). Although I haven’t found any hard scientific evidence that the crickets — considered invasive in Texas — are harmful to our plants, they are believed to be displacing native crickets.
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: I live one block from the bay and ocean. The aucuba bushes I have on the west side of the house are not doing well. They are scrawny and often get leaf scorch that I cut off. The bushes on the North side are dark green and doing very well. All are 10 years old.
Should I cut the sickly ones down to the ground and hope for the best? — Beverly, Brigantine, New Jersey
DEAR BEVERLY: Aucuba shrubs do not do well in sunny conditions. You don’t say whether they are in sun or shade, but western exposures tend to get full afternoon sun without adequate tree cover. So their decline could be as simple as that.
They will continue to get leaf scorch unless you move them.
However, since you didn’t include a photo, and I can’t see what you’ve described as scorch, I wonder if perhaps the leaf spots are black.
Aucubas do not like “wet feet,” or soggy soil, and are susceptible to root rot. Typically, the symptoms are black splotches on foliage and sometimes, the tops of shoots will collapse.
Typically, soil near the coasts is sandy, which would drain very well on its own, but since I’m not there, I can’t be sure of the conditions. I wonder if the site where the west-side aucubas are planted is compacted or exposed to water runoff or a downspout.
If the plants have root rot, there isn’t much you can do to save them unless caught very early. Unfortunately, by the time you see the symptoms, it’s usually too late.
Dig up the soil around the roots and examine them for rot. Healthy roots are light in color and fresh-looking; sick ones can be dark brown, yellow, black and/or slimy.
If only a small portion of the roots are affected, you can try clipping them away and replanting the shrub, incorporating a generous amount of compost into the backfill to improve drainage.
If your investigation doesn’t turn up soggy conditions or rotted roots, you can try cutting the plants back by about a third in early spring to rejuvenate them.
💡 If you do one thing this week…
Start dividing spring and early-summer-blooming perennials. Fall bloomers should be divided in spring.
👏 Sunday shoutout
I love it when plants give unexpected gifts, like this pink spring carpet of fallen petals under reader Judith Fetterley’s crabapple tree.
My rhododendron does the same, and I love that second act just as much as when the blooms are on the plant.
Send in your photo, and you could be featured next (bonus points if you’re in the picture!)
📰This week in my Associated Press gardening column
I write a weekly gardening column for the AP, so you might have seen my byline in your local paper (or news website) — wherever in the world you happen to be. In case you miss it, I’ll post the most recent here every week.
THIS WEEK: How to help migrating hummingbirds and see their antics up close
LAST WEEK: Easy houseplants for neglectful gardeners
BEFORE THAT: The mutant tomatoes are here, and they come in peace
You can read all my AP gardening columns here.
📚📺🎵 Random things I enjoyed this week
I was pretty much chained to my desk for the whole week, writing two cover stories and tackling some long-neglected paperwork.
I did, however, get out to present a program on the gardens of France to the Asharoken Garden Club in Northport, NY, and it was a lovely respite.
And Hulu’s The Other Black Girl had me so riveted I binged the entire season in almost one sitting.
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I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
Yes, we have many crickets as well; I’m impressed you caught a few because they’re difficult to catch :)
The glue traps do work well in the basement. I don’t have an issue with them during the winter....not sure where they go.
With regards to dividing perennials....do you have to divide them?....I’ve got many tiger Lilly’s that bloom and I’ve never divided them....and what to do once they’re divided?
Thanks Jessica....enjoy the newsletter, get a lot of good info and have started forwarding it to my daughters :)
Hi Jessica! I’m enjoying your Newsletters every week. I was a devoted follower in Newsday every Sunday. Regarding the Crickets… we have plenty! Going down into my basement is always an adventure! My question is what happens to them in the Winter? There inside so it won’t get cold down there. Do they just keep multiplying? Thanks