NEWS FROM THE U.S.D.A. INVASIVE SPECIES CONFERENCE….

Tree Pests on the Horizon That You Should be Concerned About…

On Jan. 12-15, 2016, Mauget representative Jim Rollins attended the U.S.D.A. Interagency Research Forum on Invasive Species held in Annapolis Maryland. Leading government scientists, university researchers and members of the tree health care community attended the forum. The presentations and research reports focused on a wide variety of pertinent topics.
Some of the information presented included:
Pests on the Horizon discussed included:
Gloomy Scale, Oak Lecaniun Scale are becoming more of a problem, and the concerns that Native Scale insects are becoming invasive in cities due to warming trends.
Scale insects lay more eggs in warmer temperatures and survival increases in warmer temperatures. Eggs hatch earlier in warmer temperatures, before some of the scale parasitoids.

Other insect alerts included the Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula. Although the Spotted Lantern fly looks like a small, colorful moth, it is actually a plant hopper, native to China, India, and Vietnam.  It has been identified in southeastern Pennsylvania.  The spotted lantern fly has one generation per year. Females lay 30 – 60 eggs on smooth surfaces.  They have a large list of host trees including both agricultural, (apples, grapes, stone fruits) and ornamental a preference is Ailanthus trees. Tree banding provides fairly effective control.  A Dinotefuron, bark application is also effective. (Mauget’s recently registered Dinocide, the only tree injected Dinotefuron, had not been available for use prior to the time of the conference. As a result, its labeling or studies conducted could not be presented to the conference. Jim expressed to researchers attending the conference that Mauget would be willing to participate in any and all research opportunities that may be planned. Mauget’s new tree injected insecticide, Dinocide, containing dinotefuron, is labeled for both hard and soft shell scales and appears likely to do a good job on any of the new scales emerging. On August 8, 2016, Mauget had completed a research trial on Black Scale where the results were impressive. Unfortunately, it had not been ready for submission into this conference.)

Red Bay Laurel Wilt originated in Southeast Asia.   Ambrosia Beetles spread the disease into healthy Red Bay Trees. Tree’s functional xylem is affected soon after infection which is actually the tree’s defense response.

Winter Moth / Bruce Spanworm overwinter in the egg stage. The eggs hatch in early spring and the larvae feed on the foliage of trees in spring. They pupate during May. The adult stage begins in late November late-December.  Winter Moth is more prevalent in coastal areas while the Bruce Span Worm is more prevalent in the inland areas. (Not discussed at the conference but important to note here, Mauget’s insecticide Imicide, containing  imidacloprid, is registered for controlling Winter Moth and Emerald Ash Borer, which appears on the label).

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) discussions covered detection tools and methods including EAB pheromones, improving trap designs and EAB parasitoids. The Manchurian Ash trees, (Fraxinus mandshurica) are surviving EAB attacks while Black Ash trees (Fraxinus nigra) survive EAB until they encounter other stress factors.  White and Green Ash will be attacked by EAB even when healthy.

One of the questions discussed was: Are the use of insecticides compatible with biological control when controlling EAB in urban environments? There were actually four presentations which dealt with this question. Research is currently being conducted in which ash trees are receiving chemical applications, biological control, reduced chemical applications or no chemical applications. Populations of parasitoids are then monitored and compared from these areas. Parasitoids are captured in higher numbers where reduced rates of insecticides are used. Additional research in this area will be conducted.

Note: Mauget research reports can be seen at : http://mauget.com/research/