The battle for a thriving garden begins the moment the first leaf pushes through the soil. Lush beds and tidy rows may look peaceful, but a quiet army of insects and critters waits for tender stems, ...

Richard Prokopy, 68, an entomologist who studied insects that destroy apple crops and helped develop a decoy designed to kill apple maggot flies without spraying pesticide, died May 14 of ...

Q. In your recommendations to protect developing peach fruit from insects, you usually mention spraying malathion every week — is that necessary? What about one of the organic insecticides?

Q: Last year, my plum tree didn’t have any fruit at all. This spring, it has so many plums that I’m afraid the branches may break! Why? A: This phenomenon is called alternate-year bearing and is very ...