Forest Pests

Predatory Wasps and Citizen Scientists are Taking on the Emerald Ash Borer

The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is a pest species that has killed tens of millions of ash trees and has the potential to kill most of the 8.7 billion ash trees in North America. The beetle, native to Asia, was accidentally introduced to the U.S. in 2002 in Michigan. Since then, it has spread into the eastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in Vermont – an April 2015 Update

The long cold winter of 2014-2015 will go in the record books for a number of reasons.  It certainly impacted Vermont’s hemlock woolly adelgid survey program.  Hemlock woolly adelgid (hwa) is an invasive insect from Asia that feeds on hemlock trees.  It has been known to be in southern Vermont since 2007; primarily in Windham County, with small isolated infestations in Windsor...

Northampton to remove more than 11,000 sick red pines amid aggressive insect infestation

In the early 1920s, the city planted thousands of red pines in Leeds in an effort to protect the nearby watershed.

Almost a century later, the trees populating the city's water supply land off Kennedy and Chesterfield roads are dying off rapidly, in part due to an invasive insect called the red pine scale. The pest first spread in southern New England, New York, New Jersey and eastern...

This Cold Winter Is Too 'Woolly' For Hemlock Pests

We are finally coming out of the deep freeze that we were in for pretty much all of February. Forty-three days below freezing in some parts of the state, 5-degree averages in Montpelier and Rutland. There will be some casualties of the cold weather – but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

In fact, this winter’s harsh weather is good news – at least temporarily – for those combating a...

UGA researchers unlock new way to clone hemlock trees able to fight off deadly pest

Athens, Ga. - For the first time, University of Georgia researchers have successfully cryogenically frozen germplasm from hemlock trees being wiped out across the eastern U.S. by an invasive insect. They've also unlocked a new way to clone the few hemlock trees apparently fighting off the hemlock woolly adelgid, which could potentially lead to a solution for the pest.

Long Island's southern pine beetle infestation now 'full-blown,' DEC says

A beetle that has killed thousands of acres of pines across the nation has infested much more of Long Island than previously thought, and state officials want to cut down trees in an effort to stop the spread of the pest before winter ends.

The southern pine beetle, first confirmed on Long Island in the fall, now has been found in an array of federal, state, county, town and...