Most gardeners believe spring insects to be the worst of the year, but they’re betting on the wrong season. July bugs are the worst of the lot, not only in numbers, but in ravenous appetites. If you can keep July bugs under control, you should be winning all the blue ribbon prizes.

If you were to count insects, most of our July problems happen to be “holdovers” who’ve been feeding the past eight-plus weeks on evergreens, shrubs and trees. If you’ve tried to keep abreast of insects, your persistence has enriched your landscape. If bugs have gotten the upper hand, at least you now know who’s destroying your plants.

The July arrivals are on the thin side, but here are the new insects the first week of July:

Asian dogwood: adults of Japanese maple scale

Elm: adults of European elm bark beetle

Mulberry: adults of white prunicola scale

White oak: eggs and nymphs of oak lace bugs

Willow: adults willow borers

The army of pests camping on July shrubs and trees ranks as the largest of the garden year. We would like to offer a complete list, but we just don’t know every insect feeding on plants. With these and other limitations, here are the continuing bugs of July to contend with:

Andromeda (Pieris japonica): eggs of lace bugs

Arborvitae: larvae of bagworms

Azalea: azalea lace bugs, first and second generations . . . adult fall webworms

Cotoneaster: nymphs of aphids, eggs and nymphs of hawthorn lace bug

Cypress: crawlers and eggs of Fletcher scale

Dogwood: adult fall webworms

Dwarf Alberta Spruce: spider mite adults and eggs

Fir: adults, crawlers and nymphs of elongate hemlock scale

Euonymus: adult euonymus scale

Canadian Hemlock: adults, nymphs and crawlers of elongate hemlock scale . . . adults of hemlock rust mite . . . adults and nymphs of hemlock woolly adelgid

Honeylocust: hatching of eggs of European fruit lecanium

Hydrangea: adult fall webworms . . . adults twospotted spider mites . . . crawlers of cottony camellia scale

Juniper: spider mite eggs

Mulberry: larvae of fall webworms

Oak: adult and nymphs of oak lace bug

Pine: adult pine bark adelgids . . . adult and eggs of white pine sheath mites

Privet: adults of white prunicola scale

Sweet gum: adult fall webworms

Tulip poplar: adults of tuliptree scale

Yew: adult white prunicola scale . . . hatching of eggs of cottony taxus scale

Traps: adult ash/lilac borers . . . adult dogwood borers . . . adult peachtree borers . . . adult rhododendron borers . . . adult lesser peachtree borers