Hi, thanks for
joining us for

"The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South."

I'm Chris Cooper.

Insects like to eat plants
  but spiders eat insects.

Today we're talking about
  out eight-legged friends.

Also, rodents can
  be destructive.

We'll show you how
  to control them.

That's just ahead on..

"The Family Plot:
  Gardening in the Mid-South."

(female announcer)
  Production funding for

"The Family Plot: Gardening in
  the Mid-South" is provided by

Good Winds Landscape and Garden
  Center in Germantown since 1943

and continuing to offer its
  plants for successful gardening

with seven greenhouses
  and three acres of plants

plus comprehensive
  landscape services..

[soft music]

[theme music]

Hi, welcome to
"The Family Plot."

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today
is Andy Williams.

Andy is the director out at
  Lichterman Nature Center.

And Mister D is here.

Thanks for joining us.

Glad to be here.

Alright, Andy.

You have spiders.

And I'll try not to scream.

So, what do we need to
know about the spiders?

Because they are
beneficial, right?

They are.

That's the point if you can get
past your phobias about spiders.

I mean, next is snakes.

They're some of the most
misunderstood creatures

on the planet.

They have just really
undeserved reputations.

But the more you
know about them..

Of course, you know,
it's my thing anyway.

The more you know about them,
the more interesting they are.

To start with in broad
strokes, they're arthropods.

They're related to insects
but they're not insects.

Insects typically
have three legs,

three body parts.

But spiders are arachnids,
  spiders and their relatives.

And they have eight legs.

They have
  two body parts

and some other
  interesting equipment.

So, this is not a native spider.

This is actually a blonde
  tarantula from the desert.

But we use it because
  it's the large size.

Our native
  spiders tend to live..

Most of them just
  live a single year.

But their lifecycles tend to..

They live between
one to three years.

So, this time of year, they're
kind of on the small side.

And so, it's very helpful
to have live spiders

that live longer.

These tarantulas
can live five, ten,

twenty years and
they're very long lived.

They're typically females.

Most spiders are
sexually dimorphic.

In other words, they're very
distinct differences between the

males and females.

And the females are
larger and live longer.

[laughter]

You really can't tell
really clearly here

that it has eight eyes.

But the eyes are on the
  part called the cephalothorax,

which is kind of the head chest.

They have eight
legs, eight eyes.

They're more
sensitive to light and dark.

Although, jumping spiders
can see up to eight inches.

They have pedipalps, large --
  looks like a first set of legs.

Inside, they have fangs.

The fangs are
connected to venom glands.

All spiders are venomous.

However not all spiders
venom is deleterious to humans.

But every time you
talk about spiders,

you know, you really have to
talk about the brown recluse and

the black widow, which are also
found in the gardens and you

really don't necessarily want.

The black widows are distinctive
  if they've got the hourglass

marking and that sort of stuff.

Spiders will eat anything.

And so, they eat the males.

They eat eat other spiders.

Of course, they eat everything.

The brown recluse, we won't go
  in to too much detail about it

at this point.

But they're small, wispy, brown
  spiders that hang out in your

closets and like that.

You really want to avoid them.

But anyhow, those
are the two no-nos.

But most other
spiders that we have,

there are thousands of them.

People tell us that you're never
more than three feet away

from a spider.

Your house, your
garden, everywhere.

But the good news
is they eat bugs.

They eat lots of bugs.

In the South, we have three
general types of spiders.

We have the very
familiar web spinning spiders.

They're web-weaving.

All spiders have silk glands
  they use to not only trap their

prey but also provide habitat.

They use a variety
  of interesting ways.

But these weaving spiders will
just lay their webs and wait for

something to come in to it.

See if we can get
him down a little bit.

This is our native wolf spider,
  which they get -- not terrifying

but they get very large.

See if I can get that
  around where we can see it.

They get larger later.

And they look more like
our friend the tarantula.

And this is so tiny
you can't see it.

This is a jumping spider that
jumps around and grabs its prey.

Okay.

Another spider that a lot of
people only find out by mistake

but are fairly common
are the crab type spiders.

The crab type
spiders have very..

Well, they look like
little miniature crabs.

Crabs are also arthropods
  but they're crustaceans.

So, they're related but
  not really the same thing.

But you can see it's got its
  legs in a crab like position.

So, those are the three
basic types of spiders.

They eat and hunt differently.

Like, we talked about
these wait in flowers.

And in the summer, some
of them are beautiful.

They're white.

They're green.

They're red.

They're pink.

They mimic the flowers and
they ambush and catch things

in the flowers.

So, they mimic the flowers?

Yeah, the colors of the flower.

And they chill out,
stay still and they move

with amazing speed.

Now they have a little bit
better eye sight than some.

But a lot of weaving
spiders just respond to motion.

In fact, on the
tarantulas, you know,

they're known for the hair.

The hair-like things on
their legs are very sensitive

to sound and vibration.

But another myth about
spiders is basically they are,

you know, arachnid vampires.

You know, they got their fangs.

They go and they
just bite something.

They suck the juice out of
it and go on to the next.

And actually, that's not true.

But it makes them
even more terrifying.

You know, the truth is that all
spiders to some extent digest at

least part of what they eat.

Just anyhow, you can see this
on your own if you go out

to the garden.

You look at -- throw something
in to like a garden spider or

something and watch it eat.

It will use the fangs first to
penetrate and kill the prey.

They may wrap a little bit
webbing while they're waiting

for it to die.

But then they will go.

And see if we can get him
around where he can be seen

by the camera.

This is actually
a brown recluse.

And unfortunately, he's decided
to crawl down on the bottom.

But if you look in there,
he's actually got a wolf spider.

What he's done after he knew
  he killed the wolf spider,

he grabbed it and they actually
  regurgitate digestive fluids on

to the outside.

And they take their
  jaws and the macerate it.

They get the digestive juices
  in it and they eat that way.

Now things like the wolf
spiders and tarantulas,

you know, they're hunters.

A lot of them will tear the prey
apart and eat bits and pieces.

Although, you will
see wings and legs.

I hate to say less juicy parts
but the parts that they can't

chew as well.

The crab spiders have
another way of going about it.

They have
exceedingly strong fangs.

And their fangs pierce the shell
of an insect or the exoskeleton,

the external covering.

They will go and not only inject
some venom but also they will

throw up some
digestive juices inside it.

And so, after its dead, it'll
start digesting inside out.

And they'll suck out
the digestive stuff

out of the inside.

But anyhow, that's how they eat.

But what do they eat?

They primarily eat bugs.

And garden pests are
among their favorite foods.

There are..

Some of the hunters will -- has
to eat special as far as diet.

But almost any web-weaving
spider will eat whatever goes in

to its web.

The webs don't hurt the plants.

So, you want to attract them.

You'll need some tall plants
for them to put their webs on.

Also, provide some mulching
cover for these hunting insects

to provide cover and go out
and hunt and do their thing.

Andy, that was great.

We appreciate that.

There are a number of gardening
events going on in the next

couple of weeks.

Here are just a few
that might interest you.

[theme music]

Alright, we talked
about the spiders.

Now, Mister D, moles,
voles and chipmunks.

Let's start with
the moles first.

Let's do start with the moles.

That's actually a success story.

I can tell you some good
things about the mole.

This past week,
I caught three in my yard.

And that's probably about seven
that I've caught this year using

the same scissors type mole
trap I've had for several years.

But it's pretty easy to catch
moles if you simply try to set

your trap over a long tunnel
that doesn't have any branches

off to the side.

And you set your
trap over that tunnel.

And you should catch one.

If you don't..

If you don't catch one
within two days, move it.

Don't leave it there for a week.

You know, give it
a couple of days.

And with that being said,
there's actually a video of you

showing us how to
set up a mole trap.

Looks like we have a little
bit of a mole problem here.

WKNO has its own mole.

That's good.

We'll see if we
  can take care of it.

Need to understand a little bit
  about moles before you try to

trap them, a little bit
about their biology

and their feeding habits.

Primary diet of a
mole is an earthworm.

And they do eat white
grubs and other soil insects.

But earthworms are
their primary diet.

They have..

One mole can tunnel up
to 225 feet in one night.

They have a veracious appetite.

They're carnivorous.

They have different
types of tunnels.

The long tunnel that doesn't
have any lateral tunnels off to

the side is probably a
transportation tunnel.

Of course, he could be feeding.

He probably is feeding as
he's going down through that

transportation tunnel.

The tunnels that have a lot of
lateral tunnels off to the side,

it looks like he's kind of
confused or wondering around.

Well, that is a feeding tunnel.

He's probably in an area where
there are a lot of earthworms.

And he just is..

That's the buffet.

He's enjoying the food.

Now a place to set a trap is not
in one of the feeding tunnels.

Because he may not come back
to this area for a long time.

The place to set a trap is
over a transportation tunnel,

a tunnel that he uses going from
his den to the feeding area,

to the feeding ground.

And what I look for if I can't..

You know, ideally I would come
out here every night for two or

three nights and mash
all these tunnels down.

And then the next morning, go
out and look at the tunnel that

was raised, flag it and do
that for two or three days.

And then the tunnel that's
raised every night tells me that

is definitely a
transportation tunnel.

And you'll probably be 100%
effective in catching a mole.

I don't have time to do that.

So, I look for a long
tunnel like this right here.

We got four feet of this tunnel.

It doesn't have any
  little side branches off.

So, that tells me that may very
  well be a transportation tunnel.

And that's where I set my trap.

If I'm successful
  in a day or two, good.

If not, I probably judged this
incorrectly and I'll move my

trap somewhere else.

I don't ever leave a trap -- an
unsprung trap over a couple of

days in an area.

But it's important that
you set the trap correctly.

This has a couple
of scissors on it.

The way it's designed,
when you set the trap,

it actually opens a channel
for these scissors to work.

Be sure you set the scissors
so that they will open up

perpendicular to the runway.

If you set it that way,
that's the wrong way.

The mole can still get through.

So, you push this
down in to the tunnel,

snug it down there pretty good.

It's really very, very simple.

And you carefully put your
foot on it and you push it down.

As you're pushing it down,
those scissors are opening.

And I'm making sure that the
trigger stays pretty much in the

center, over the
center of that tunnel.

Push it down until it
clicks and it's set.

So, we're ready.

We are in the
hunting mode right now.

Those scissors have opened
up and they're ready to go.

The mole will..

Even though that's pushing down,
  the mole will raise

that tunnel again.

And when it raises that
  trigger, you'll have your mole.

And he won't last very long.

Just as important as learning
  how to set a trap correctly is

learning how to spring that trap
  without getting your fingers

cut off.

So, be very, very
careful with that.

And the way I do it..

And I'm not sure this is
approved -- an approved method.

I know where those scissors are.

So, I make sure I keep my
fingers away from that trigger.

Now pull it out of the ground.

Either side will work.

Work it out of the ground.

See, the trigger is still..

You can see the scissors.

That's in mole-catching mode.

Usually it hits the
  ground before it does that.

But I keep my fingers away from
  the scissors and just toss it

on the ground.

And it's ready to go.

Okay, and we have Andy here.

And guess what he
brought us so we can see.

Because most folks
have never seen a mole.

So..

Well, this is
actually the Eastern mole.

You can see it's
got a long snout.

It's pretty sensitive.

Large front paws are
  designed for moving

through the dirt easily.

The fur goes in one direction.

And it's super soft.

I mean, it actually feels good.

It helps him glide
  through the tunnels.

You know, they're
ubiquitous in the South.

They love..

They eat insects.

Well, they have a lot of grubs.

But I think their favorite
food may be earth worms.

And so, the best way to attract
them to your yard is to have a

beautiful scene of grass.

That's exactly.

If you don't use
many pesticides,

you know, that just
brings them in

like sending the bat signal up.

Okay.

Now what else did
you bring us, Andy?

Well, also brought two things.

This is actually a shrew.

As you can tell, the
shrew looks like the mole.

It eats insects as well.

But it doesn't tend to dig
  as much as the moles do.

They'll dig occasionally but
  they primarily use the tunnels

that are made by the moles.

And they'll also follow some of
the tracks made by voles with a

V that actually
will eat your plants.

They're easily mistaken.

But if you look carefully, you
can tell very quickly that they

have very different front legs.

These are not
  designed for burrowing.

They do have the
  same sort of snout.

But they're
  substantially smaller.

A vole, which we will
talk about in a little bit,

is also a rodent.

It tends to be a little
lighter brown and its sort of,

you know, roughly half way in
size between the size of a shrew

and a mole.

Last but not
least, our chipmunk.

Yeah, another garden animal.

Both the chipmunks
and the moles dig.

And they tend to be solitary
  except when they're breeding.

The moles will
  breed once a year,

typically in the spring.

The chipmunks, sometimes
  they have two batches.

They look cute in cartoons
  but they do dig up your garden.

They're omnivorous.

But they will preferably a
lot of vegetables and stuff.

And they can carry
food in their cheeks.

They have pouches, a great way.

Moles have really
high energy demands.

They run around the
yard eating all the time.

And they don't store food.

You know, they just kind of go
to deeper areas to look for food

when the weather gets cold.

Alright, we
appreciate that, Andy.

Now Mister D, how about control?

Well, you know, another
thing you were talking about,

the energy needs of the mole.

They can eat 70 to 100% of their
body weight per day of insects.

And like you said, mostly
earthworms is what they like.

They have a real narrow..

You notice their rear hind
quarters are more narrow

than the front.

That enables them to very easily
  turn around in their tunnel.

But they're
  interesting critters.

You ever heard of making a
mountain out of a mole hill?

You know what a mole hill is?

Well, that's the hole
that they dig

when during dry
weather conditions.

They're still tunneling
underground but you can't see

the tunnel and the
dirt has to go somewhere.

Just make you
get that control

while we have
just a little time left.

Well, the control..

Just set a trap.

Scissors-type trap is the one
that I found to be successful.

And set it correctly over a long
span of uninterrupted tunnel.

If it's got a lot of side
tunnels off to the side of it,

it's a feeding tunnel.

The mole may not be there.

Set the trap and if you don't
catch anything in two days,

move it to another one.

And just kind of
keep doing that.

You'll eventually have success.

What about for the
voles and the chipmunks?

The voles and
chipmunks, you know..

Voles are..

Both of them are rodents.

Of course, voles, you
can use rodenticides.

They're cleared
for use on voles.

I have some vole damage under
one of my apple trees I noticed.

I was pulling some of the
weeds back and leaves back

from my apple trees.

And that's one thing that will
help prevent that damage or stop

that damage because they like
to be covered up and they like

weeds to be there.

And I pull all that out.

I'm going to try that.

And if I still continue to have
moles or voles present there,

then I will put a rodenticide
out and try to take care of it.

The chipmunks, even
though they're a rodent,

none of the rodenticides are
cleared for use on chipmunks.

So, exclusion methods.

You know, try to chase them out.

You know, not a whole lot to do.

And they can do you some damage.

They take my four wheel drive
out of my hunting vehicle every

year and I have to take it to my
mechanic to get it fixed every

year before
hunting season starts.

If you got a vehicle that just
sits out and you don't drive it

a lot during the
summer time, look out.

Alright.

Well, we appreciate
that Andy and Mister D.

Now is our Q and A session.

Andy, we want you to join us.

Sure.

Alright.

Here's the first viewer e-mail.

How do I protect my
  strawberries from birds?

I put stakes with bird
netting over my patch.

It was not working well so I put
taller stakes with another layer

of netting.

I've had tape tied
on and added more.

Still they are
eating through the net.

"Help," says Miss Elizabeth.

Mister D, help!

What kind of birds do you have?

I'd like to see.

If you do a good job of putting
netting around and seal it real

good, I don't understand how the
birds are getting through there

unless you have the net
so close to the fruit,

the birds are able to
peck through the netting.

I really don't understand that.

And that's the only
thing I can think of.

I would try frightening agents.

Try an artificial
mole, an artificial snake.

They become habituated.

So, you know, you've
got to move that around.

But I'm with you.

If you're having mechanical
troubles like that that are not

working, you know, I would
re-examine my technique.

(Mike)
  You need some engineering.

You may just need somebody with
some engineering experience to

approve of that
mechanical exclusion method.

Alright, there you
have it, Miss Elizabeth.

Here's our next question.

While pulling up
weeds in my yard,

I discovered several grub worms.

What do you recommend
  I use to get rid of them?

A mole.

Ah, how about that?

We were waiting for that one.

I saw the look on your face.

It has
environmentally sustainable

gardening techniques.

Actually, there are several I
pulled from the Red Book 2015.

The page that gives
the control methods.

And one of the first..

Actually the first thing on
the list is something we've been

using for years and years and
years to control grub worms.

And that's Carbaryl.

Garden granules, two percent
granules will do a good job.

They're easy to kill.

You know, they
come out at night.

If you scatter the
pesticide out on the lawn at,

you know, late
afternoon, you know,

you'll actually see the
dead grubs on the surface

of the ground.

But there are others.

GrubEx.

Maxzide is a product.

Bayer Advance
24 hour grub killer.

Those are the ones that are
listed to control both the

larvae of the green june beetles
and the larvae of the may

beetles, chafers,
Japanese beetle.

I can't tell them apart.

White grubs are all
the larvae of all

of these different beetles.

Well, two things
to throw in there.

The grubs are
actually larva beetles.

They grow to something
later that is some

which can be beneficial.

Also, before you
apply pesticides,

I'd see if
they're doing any harm.

You know, are you concerned
that they're there or you're

concerned that you're seeing
a decline in your vegetables

or your garden.

(Chris)
  That's a good point.

They're probably in
every body's yard.

And honestly, I can only
think of a couple of times in my

career where I've seen
enough damage

that I would
recommend treating.

I saw it in a farmer's
pasture one time and they were

completely killing
his Bermuda grass.

And most of the time
-- most of the time,

you can live with the
damage that they create.

Okay.

Alright.

So, here's our next question.

Are ants harmful in
  a vegetable garden?

As he takes off his glasses.

There are a couple
of schools of thought.

You know, earlier we were
looking at some aphids

on tomatoes.

And ants like aphids.

Aphids secrete honeydew.

It's kind of a
sweet, sticky substance.

And ants will actually
kind of protect those aphids.

And ants are omnivorous, which
means they can be carnivorous

but they're omnivorous.

They eat both
plant material and,

uh, other insects.

So, if they're eating an insect,
they're beneficial and you're

probably okay to
leave them there.

If they're eating on plant
material like okra, tomatoes..

Fire ants are maybe an
example that can be beneficial.

But if there are so many out
there that they're bothering you

when you're
picking peas, you know,

then they're not beneficial.

So, there are some products that
you can use some of the baits.

If they're bothering you and you
want to get rid of them -- yes,

you can kill them and there are
products that are labeled for

use in home gardens.

But I would wait and try to
determine whether or not they're

doing you more harm than good.

They may be doing you
more good than harm.

And if that's the
case, leave them be.

Alright, here's
our next question.

This is a good one.

Does the soil lab you
  often speak of test for lead?

Mister D?

No.

It does not.

Absolutely not.

UT Soil Test Lab checks for
nutrients that plants need.

And if you want to have
an analysis done for lead,

you'll need to go with one of
the private labs around like

A and L lab in Memphis.

That's the one that's
local that I'm aware of.

But there are other labs around
that will specifically test for

what you ask them to test for.

It'll be more than
four dollars a sample.

They use techniques that have
really low detection limits in

case you were interested
in lower levels of lead

than you would nutrients.

And so, there's a lot of
higher costs that go in to that.

Not only the equipment but also
to prevent cross-contamination

because lead is so ubiquitous.

A few years ago we did
some gardens in urban areas.

And we checked the soil.

And it's kind of surprising.

Most of the pHs of the soil was
high because there was so much

white gravel around and the
limestone had raised the pH.

But there was other analysis
done and almost all of them,

because they were
old houses around,

almost all of them had
fairly high levels of lead.

Or I say high levels of lead.

Just the presence
of the lead paint..

You know, parts per billion.

Alright, Andy, Mister D,
we're out of time.

Thanks.

Thank you.

(Chris)
  Remember, we love
  to hear from you.

Send us a letter or an e-mail
  with your gardening questions.

Send your e-mail to
  Familyplot@wkno.org.

The mailing address is:
  Family Plot

7151 Cherry Farms road,
  Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

That's all we
have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Be sure to join us
next time for

"The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South."

Be safe.

[theme music]

(female announcer)
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"The Family Plot: Gardening in
  the Mid-South" is provided by

Good Winds Landscape and Garden
  Center in Germantown since 1943

and continuing to offer its
  plants for successful gardening

with seven greenhouses
  and three acres of plants

plus comprehensive
  landscape services..

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