Fall brings its own treasures. The crispness of the air, the changing colors of the leaves, crop harvest, and football are all with us in the fall. But fall also brings its problems. One of them that we deal with at the Extension Office is a plethora of insects. Let's talk about some of them.

The insect that seems to generate the most calls every fall is the fall webworm. This is the pest that builds the silky tents in trees, particularly the pecan tree. These little worms can defoliate a tree in a hurry, and if the infestation is severe enough, the tree may die. Almost any general insecticide will control the fall webworm, but there are two problems.

First, the tent protects the worm. In order for the insecticide to be effective, it must contact the worm. Without physically disturbing the web with a pole or stick, few people have enough water pressure for a hose end sprayer to penetrate that web. The same is true if you try to use a pump-up type sprayer.

The second problem is that many times the web is so high in the tree that a home owner cannot get to the web with any type of sprayer. If you are having trouble with webworms, do your best to open that web up and then spray it with an insecticide. If that is impossible, spray as much of the tree as possible and spray the area under the tree. If a web happens to fall from the tree, burn the web.

Another worm that has created some excitement is the oak worm. This little creature is about two inches long, has a pair of horns on the head, spines on the back, longer spines on the rear end, and is black with orange stripes. In short, a pretty fearsome looking worm. It is only a leaf feeder and will not sting or bite you. Again, most insecticides will control this worm if you can get it to them. In most cases control is really not needed.

The pecan twig girder always generates some calls. This insect looks somewhat like a bollweevil. It is 1/8- to 1/4-inch long, grayish brown in color, and has a pronounced snout or beak. It actually chews around pencil sized pecan branches until the branch is girdled, or cut off. The branch is cut very smooth, almost with a pipe cutter appearance. Once again, it is difficult to spray the tree, so treat under the tree with an insecticide and rake up and destroy fallen branches and leaves.

Many homeowners call about white grubs showing up in their yards, especially after a rain. This is the immature form of the Japanese beetle. Actually, in some cases it is the immature form of the billbug, but you treat both the same way, so exact identification is not needed. Treat the area with an insecticide. Milky spore is a biological control for grubs, but is most effective when used over a large area. One homeowner treating his lawn will make little or no progress in controlling grubs and the subsequent beetles.

Another favorite fall question is "Why are my pine trees losing needles?" In most cases, it is a natural occurrence. Even though we refer to pines as evergreens, the fact is that they will drop and replace close to one half of their needles each year. If your pines are losing older needles, such as those several inches back from the branch tips, that is an indication of some other problem.

This is an important time for next year's vegetable garden. Pull up or plow under the plants as they die. Over seed with rye or winter peas as a cover crop. If you do not over seed, plow the garden a couple times during the winter. That will expose over wintering weed seed and insects to killing temperatures and reduce your pest problems next summer.