Time for a rant, and a long overdue one at that. I realize that what I am about to rant against may rub some people the wrong way, so I will start by saying what I am NOT ranting against.

 

A.) I believe in taking out your lawn if you can . Lawns have been universally panned as any type of wildlife refugee, are generally water  and fertilizer hogs, and  mowing etc is a pain.

B.) I love many plants that are described as “native” or indigenous.( I disagree with the  terminology labeling them as such and the fact that they are all grouped together as though they  are one SUPER-plant, but that is not the rant here.)

C.) I think planting for wildlife is a stellar idea, and there are many plants that support our wildlife that are both native and nonnative and embrace any effort that a homeowner gives to provide shelter, food or water to said wildlife.

I must also mention that I love me some science, and I can(un) happily spend hours reading hypotheses, abstracts, graph and data charts, but DO NOT in any way support cherry picking of  results or agenda driven experiments ( more on that when I rant on the other Myths in a later post)

So, back to the rant. This article has come across  my social media feed ad nauseum in the past few days, and although in some circles it may get me  banned or worse, spit at, , I am going to rant against it because it’s my blog and I can.

I will state again, that I love science. I love that some amazing curious mind poses a question, then does enough research to pose a hypothesis, designs an experiment to test said hypothesis , and then draws whatever useful conclusions they can whether they support or undermine the initial theory. Science. Love it.

What I DO NOT love is people masquerading as scientists; posing theories then designing bad studies, then  picking and publishing the data that supports their theory and disregarding the rest. I despise when those results are quoted in articles written for the general public who may not be inclined to question their validity especially when the cause they seem to be supporting seems so noble.  But even though I could rant on the so very many half-truths, misleading information and unsubstantiated claims here, ( and trust me I will at a later date) today I will zero in on only the most egregious  and that is in Myth 4.

Myth 4 states , and I quote…..”Tallamy’s studies show that native plants suffer no greater damage from plant-eating pests than do nonnatives and may in fact be healthier because they foster a more balanced ecosystem. Natives do host many indigenous herbivorous insects such as caterpillars, but these plant eaters in turn attract native predators—such as birds, assassin bugs, preying mantids, ladybird beetles and parasitic wasps—that keep the herbivores under control. In contrast, imported nonnatives, such as azaleas, may host nonnative pests that have few predators. With no natural enemies, “the azalea lace bug is the No. 1 pest in the eastern United States,” says Tallamy.

So lets start with these two statements

1.) that non native azaleas host lace bugs and the unstated but implied statement that native azaleas do not ( although the author of these statements  does actually claim  that in his well known and never to be mentioned here on this blog book)

2.)that azalea lace bugs( stephantis pyriodes) are voracious pests with no know natural predators here in the US.

both a bunch of BS

 

Most Azaleas, regardless of parentage, are susceptible to the azalea lace bug. The lace bug is an introduced pest from Japan. that has spread throughout parts of the country and damages the plant by using piercing mouth parts to suck sap from the leaves .  The damage shows up as stippling on the tops of the leaves and if you look under the leaves you will see the bugs.Yes, it may have arrived on imported nursery stock,and that is unfortunate, and I hope we are learning from our mistakes, but any  azalea species or cultivar  can be infested. The Azelea lace bug has never and will never enquire about a particular host plant’s nativity before inviting itself to dinner. And if you bought a plant in 2015 that was propagated here in the US  you are not importing anything, it has been here since 1916, it is already widespread,   and as such must be dealt with. The azalea lace bug  will feast on native and non native alike, and actually some of the most resistant plants (meaning azaleas that are avoided by the azalea lace bug) are hybrids of foreign origin  and we should be encouraged to plant them . Four of our native species have been defined as resistant and there is a plan afoot to hydridize them at the University of Georgia which is good news.Every extension site I visited and a few university sites as well  recommend planting azaleas only in shadier locations( in the eastern part of the US) to encourage predatory insects as well as the fact that drought and sun -stressed plants are far more susceptible to attack and extreme damage. ( I read several studies that drew this as their conclusion, although in the Pacific Northwest damage was worse in the shade).

As for an entemologist that would make the statement that the azalea lace bug has no natural predators here, I can not even fathom how to comment. I can site you many extension sites that list a bevy of predators (spiders, assasin bugs, lacewings) ,  like here, or  here , or this article..( there were many many more btw ).so is everybody else wrong?  Or is this claim meant to create hysteria and mayhem all in the name of furthering an agenda?  ( again, shadier locations will be a better location for planting as the predatory insects will prefer this habitat).

Lastly, I can not find one other source that backs up the claim that azalea lace bug is the #1 pest in the eastern US. It is widespread in certain areas , but #1? Not according to anyone except this author.

The minute I read blatantly misleading information and disregard for inconvenient truths I immediately suspect every other word written . Agenda….driven….”science”…is……the….worst!

As to why azaleas were even mentioned in this article, I am still struggling to understand.  Of all the plants that could have been included to make a point germaine to the discussion here….azaleas? Anyway, part one of the rant is over. Part two when I am feeling brave 🙂