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Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
She (Times
gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, November 16, 2018
‘American Pickers’ dig for gold
Photo courtesy CINEFLEX I For The Times
Frank Fritz, left, and Mike Wolfe, stars of “American Pickers,” are returning to Georgia and are looking for participants in their antiques show.
This History Channel duo is hunting
for exceptional antiques in Georgia
Get some cash from your clutter,
Gainesville: “American Pickers” is
coming back through Georgia and
the show is looking for antiques.
The show following Mike Wolfe
and Frank Fritz as the pair prowl
through collectibles throughout
the country, looking for prizes to
pick and resell. They’ll be filming
through February 2019 and are cur
rently looking for people with large,
private collections of antiques who
want to participate in the show.
People selected to participate
in the show should expect to have
their collections looked through
“for the better part of the day,”
according to an announcement
from Cineflex, the producers of the
show.
“As they hit the back roads from
coast to coast, Mike and Frank
are on a mission to recycle and
rescue forgotten relics,” states the
announcement. “Along the way, the
Pickers want to meet characters
with remarkable and exceptional
items. The pair hopes to give his
torically significant objects a new
lease on life, while learning a thing
or two about America’s past along
the way. “
If you would like to participate in
the show, send your name, phone
number, location and a descrip
tion of the collection to ameri-
canpickers@cineflix.com or call
855-OLD-RUST.
Private collections do not include
stores, malls, flea markets, muse
ums, auctions, businesses or any
thing open to the public, according
to Cineflex.
This story has been compiled from a
Cineflex press release.
Pests like to invade our homes during cold months
At my work in the University of
Georgia Augusta Extension office,
we often get calls from people
wanting us to identify some sort
of weed or bug or plant. Some
of these callers are what I call
“descriptively challenged,” forc
ing me to pry the information out
of them with questions (or getting
them to send me a picture or bring
it into the office).
It can feel like I’m playing the
game 20 questions, where you
have to guess what the other
person is thinking. After years of
fielding these types of phone calls,
I’m surprised at how many times I
can give them the answer without
ever getting to see the mystery
object.
I had a call recently from a
Columbia County deputy who
rides the road a lot. His question:
“What is all that white fluff flying
everywhere?” In this case, my
first question to him was, “Is it a
plant or an animal?” When he said
it was a plant, I knew immediately
that it was the seedheads of a
CAMPBELL VAUGHN
ecvaughn@uga.edu
plant that can be seen on highway
right-of-ways and along the edges
of fields.
Called groundsel or silverling,
it’s an evergreen “weed” that can
get up to 10 feet high. The botani
cal name is Baccharis halimifolia,
and it is native to the southeastern
United States. Not many plants
are blooming now, so it really
stands out. One book described the
flowers as “silky-haired achenes,”
a description I particularly love.
Be on the lookout for the “white
fluff.”
Home invader calls have also
been coming in. Not the two-legged
kind, but the six-legged kind. At
this time of year, the multicolored
Asian lady beetle may be an unwel
come guest. You all have seen
them, but may have forgotten the
name. They range in color from
yellow to orange to red and may
or may not have spots (similar to a
ladybug, hence their name).
They wander around and enter
buildings through cracks between
siding, around windows, and
around roof flashing and over
hangs. They were introduced from
Asia by the USD A in the seventies
because they are voracious eaters
of bad insects. They seemed to dis
appear for several years, and then
about 10-15 years ago, the popula
tion exploded. The reason they
come into your house is that in
their native lands, they overwinter
in caves and on cliffs. We don’t
have a lot of caves around here, so
your house is the next best thing.
Just vacuum them up.
Be careful and don’t squish
them as they exude a smelly fluid
that stains clothes and to which
some people are allergic.
A newer insect that has come
into our lives is the kudzu bug. It
is about the same size as a lady-
bug beetle, army green, and has
a blunt back end. This bug was
discovered by a county agent in
Georgia in 2009 (who was prob
ably playing 20 questions) and it
didn’t take long for them to get to
South Carolina.
Kudzu bugs feed on kudzu, as
the name implies, but they also eat
other members of the pea family
such as soybeans, beans, and wis
teria. In soybean fields, farmers
have to spray for them because
they feed on the main stem and
the leaves of soybean thus reduc
ing the yields.
I think the spraying has cut
down on their numbers as I
haven’t seen quite as many this
fall. Spring and fall are when you
normally see them. In spring they
hang out waiting for their pre
ferred hosts to put out leaves.
I dry my sheets outside on the
clothesline, and in the spring, I
have to shake the sheets to keep
from bringing them inside. They
can aggregate in large numbers
on plants and some people want
to spray insecticide to kill them. I
don’t suffer from entomophobia
(fear of insects), so I just wait
for them to move on. If you have
to spray a plant, make sure the
insecticide is labeled for treating
plants. Likewise, if you spray the
outside of your home, make sure
the product is labeled for struc
tural use or you could do more
harm than good.
Like the multicolored Asian
lady beetles, kudzu bugs, too, like
to invade our homes over winter.
They also have secretions that
have a foul odor and can stain fab
rics. Again, the best way to get rid
of them is vacuuming. Just throw
away the bag, because the odor
can linger.
Campbell Vaughn is UGA Extension-
Agriculture and Natural Resource
Agent in Richmond County. He can
be reached at ecvaughn@uga.edu.