Billions of Cicadas Begin to Emerge

We have had a ton of phone calls about the 13-year cicadas that have begun emerging from the ground in mass quantities. On Sunday, the Columbia Daily Tribune ran an excellent article about it. Click the link above to check it out.

In about a week, these little fellas will move up into the treetops and while you’ll probably still hear them singing, you won’t see them crawling all over everything. The bottom line is they won’t hurt you or your family, and don’t pose a threat to your established trees. Smaller trees may experience a bit of damage, but it’s better to feed those trees than try to treat the cicadas themselves with a pesticide. So, take a deep breath and try to appreciate this freaky weirdness for what it truly is…An incredible miracle of nature!

Thank you to everyone that has supported the Atkins Thinks Pink Team in the inaugural Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.     It’s not too late to donate…Just click the pink ribbon on our home page, and it will take you straight to our donation center.    No donation is too small, and you can feel like a superhero in the fight against breast cancer.   Seventy-five percent of all funds raised stay right here in mid-Missouri!

Ran across this article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and had to share it.   We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, so we won’t even try.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_371bfc22-6f07-51d8-9a73-f59ae5a869d5.html

Back in July, there were a lot of Japanese beetle sightings. They hatch out of the lawn and swarm around looking for foliage to eat. Once these critters start zipping around your landscape, they can completely defoliate a tree in two days or less with their voracious appetites. We can treat your trees, shrubs, bushes, and roses once you start seeing activity. You might also want to think about scheduling a lawn treatment to prevent the larvae from hatching.
Whatever you do, do not hang a pheremone trap from the tree. Instead of solving the problem, the trap will actually just invite more beetles to join the leafy buffet that is your landscape!