SHELBURNE CENTER, Massachusetts — It was only a year ago that Norman and Lisa Davenport first noticed sunlight flickering through the once-dense shade of a stand of hemlocks on their hilltop farmland.
And now those first trees look more like utility poles than conifers.
As the twin evils of elongate hemlock scale and hemlock woolly adelgid spread...
The winter of 2014-2015 was tough on hemlock woolly adelgid; 97 to 99 percent of the sistens, or winter, generation died. The previous winter had similar winter mortality rates. This helped to give hemlock trees a bit of a reprieve. But, while these recent mortality rates have been high enough to temporarily stop the spread of HWA, the trees are still...
Vic Bogosian has an 18,000-strong army--or, rather, air-force--of wasps, and he's looking for more draftees. They're fighting an enemy of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, the emerald ash borer, an invasive species from China that has been wiping out an important part of Michigan's Native American culture, the ash tree.
Mattapoisett — In 2013, at least 1,000 European flies were released into Nasketucket Bay State Reservation with the hopes that they would spread throughout the area. Awesome, right?
It may not sound like good news, but these flies have a very specific job to do: take down the winter moth population.
In 2001, ash trees began dying in Detroit, and no one could say why. Then glittering green beetles were discovered crawling out of an ash log.
American scientists had never seen the beetles, and they reached out to experts around the world for help. A Slovakian entomologist named Eduard Jendek solved the mystery: Detroit’s ash trees were being killed by Agrilus planipennis, the emerald...
Oak wilt is an aggressive and often deadly disease that affects all species of oaks (Quercus). It is one of the most serious tree diseases in the eastern United States.
Each year thousands of oaks die from this disease in yards, public landscapes and forests. It has been found in 21 states, with considerable damage occurring in...
August is “Tree Check” month. It’s the time when ecologists are out surveying the forests to see if invasive insect species are showing up in the state. Here in Vermont scientists are primarily on the lookout for Asian longhorned beetle, Emerald ash borer, and hemlock woolly adelgid.
So far the longhorned beetle and the emerald ash borer haven’t infiltrated...
The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is an invasive pest that is decimating ash trees across the United States and Canada. By 2019, it’s estimated that the beetle will have caused economic damage to the tune of $10 billion.
A tiny fly from the Pacific Northwest may provide new hope for towering hemlock forests dying along the East Coast.
Deep-green hemlock forests stretch from Georgia to southern Canada. Or at least they used to. Over the last few decades, the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect, has killed millions of these trees as it spreads north and south...
Smelling good is just part of what some beetles must do to find a mate. They have to exude the proper perfume at the right time of day and right season of the year, a UA-led team found.
A longhorned beetle’s sexy scent might make a female perk up her antennae. But when the males of several species all smell the same, a female cannot choose by cologne alone.
The state's new system to confront the invasive emerald ash borer, which relies on quarantine zones drawn around forests known to be infested, is unique among the 25 states in the eastern U.S. where the ash-devouring pest is found.
As a consequence of no longer lining up with federal control rules, the U.S....
