Asian Longhorned Beetle in NJ

[murphy4trees]

I heard a radio report that ALB has been found in 90 trees in Jersey City.. a quarentine has been set up...
So perhaps we can all keep an eye out for ALB... in case they make another move...
God bless all,
Daniel

 

[kf_tree]

the big problem is there are just too many small tree svc's that know nothing about them. there are class's in nyc that are mandatory but alot of the small guys do not attend. the tree gets cut down then redistributed as fire wood. i believe thats how they ended up on long island. an LI tree svc did work in green point and hauled the wood back.

is amazing the damage they can do. i've seen piles of saw dust around the base of a few tree's. about 5 or 6 years ago a guy showed up at my yard showing me pic's asking about the alb. he then showed me one in a test tube, BANG we removed a tree with one on it about a week before. i was able to show him on a map where it was. then he inspected all the tree's around the yard and went to check the tree's where i dumped chips. that was how i learned about them.

but how is the small guy supposed to learn about them, and will they walk away from an easy removal?

 

[murphy4trees]

michigan alert

Just found the following on the NAA website

Emerald Ash Borer Found in Michigan

In mid-July, Michigan and federal officials announced the discovery and identification of a new exotic pest from Asia – Agrilus planipennis, or the emerald ash borer – in five counties in southeast Michigan.
The emerald ash borer, a pest belonging to a group of insects known as metallic wood-boring beetles, is not native to Michigan or anywhere in the United States. It is active in Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, Taiwan and Japan.

Emerald ash borer adults are dark metallic green in color, half-inch in length and 1/16-inch wide. Larvae are creamy white in color and are found under the bark. The larvae make a zigzag of tunnels under the bark in late summer and fall. The tunnels disrupt water and nutrient transport, effectively choking the tree to death.
The presence of emerald ash borer typically goes undetected until the trees show symptoms of being infested – usually the upper third of a tree will thin and die back, and a large number of shoots or branches arise below the dead portions of the trunk.

In response to the infestation, Michigan state agriculture officials have issued a quarantine on all ash trees and timber products in the five affected counties – Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne.

All are encouraged to be on the lookout for this pest and report any signs of it to the state’s toll-free Emerald Ash Borer Hotline at 1-866-325-0023. More information on the ash borer can be found online at www.michigan.gov/mda.

 

[RobK880]

Yeah 98 trees as of thursday. Some of them were hammered too. Its probably been there for at least 5 years based on the damage. Not sure how far it spread yet either???? Theres gonna be a lot of unhappy people in Jersey City once they lose their trees...

 

[Rob Shauger]

link

Murph,

that Michigan link does not work.

 

[kf_tree]

ok hears my little beef about the ALB. the nyc parks hired davey tree to inject all city tree's in manhattan with (pardon my spelling) immucide. its been proven to make tree's repel the ALB. but as a tree svc it is illegal to sell it to customers as an innoculant to save their tree's. if it does not work then why is the city pissing its money away? if it does work why can't tree svc's make a few bucks savging tree's?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

That compound is Bayers Merit. You need to be licensed to use it

It only works when the larva is feedin in the cambial layer, so inspections need to be done regularly.

ALB is not currently on the lable, so you need a Special Use Permit from the regulatory agency.

 

[murphy4trees]

Keep your eyes open
The following info is from the link below:
God Bless All,
Daniel

According to Dr. Shields, we are likely to find more ALB infestations in the coming years. Because the beetle first attacks the smallest and youngest branches of a tree, which are mostly at the top, it takes several years before an infestation is detectable from the ground. Generally, it is the dropping of these smaller, gallery-ridden branches that is the first sign of an infestation. Shields estimates the ALB may have arrived in New York as early as 1988, and in Chicago as early as 1991, even though the infestations were not detected until 1996 and 1998, respectively. There may be many more infestations out there waiting to be discovered.

The Asian longhorned beetle has a long and growing list of hardwood host species in North America. While it seems to prefer maples and horsechestnut, it will readily attack yellow-poplar, willow, elm, mulberry, black locust, and several commercial fruit trees including pear and plum. ALB's species preference leaves a majority of northern hardwood forests, western hardwood forests and most North American urban forests at risk (Figure 3). In addition, new hardwood species are continually being added to the susceptibility list, according to Dr. Kathleen Shields, Project Leader of the USDA Forest Service's Forest Insect Biology and Biocontrol research unit in Hamden, Connecticut. It is not unlikely that the ALB will find southern hardwood species equally as palatable.
Link is http://www.gacaps.org/pests/albfact.html

 

[Reed]

Be cautious of official recommendations.

There's serious influence on establishing treatment protocols as the infestations mean a very lucrative business monopoly.

Unless the USDA can prove neutrality, the rule of thumb should be to NOT prescribe recommended controls. Think.

Pass the word on cultural basics - no wood movement. Search and destroy even if it means climbing EVERY tree in periphery of infected host. At this early stage in what will be an uncontrolled epidemic, there's possibility for effective control unlike what happened here in Texas with wilt.

There's always natural controls - what may not be yet a reasonable program for addressing insect activity, we go to where the beetle started. Microbial controls that established along with populations but failed to migrate with the pest overseas. We communicate with those who know the bug where it comes from.

 

[Nickrosis]

Daniel's comment wasn't recommending any kind of treatment....

I don't like the idea of biological controls until each one has been demonstrated to not escape the confines of its control use. Otherwise, we could have the problem of ALB and a biological pathogen running rampant as well.

The benefits of using something like Merit is the assurance that we have a pretty good handle on its characteristics and the knowledge that it won't spread across the country in its own epidemic. Some "official recommedations" may have problems, but I wouldn't say that most of them do.

Nickrosis

 

[Reed]

I'm just looking at past attempts for control and current designs in methodology and why outbreaks seldom are successfully managed.

Current research is stacked in favor of funded studies. Money comes from those who have it to begin with and "peer review" is staffed on the same principle. Ask Jenifer Juswik of the UofM. or Ms. Quinn of Missouri.

IPM managers to begin with are looked upon as lower-order life forms - the facilities are limited, the philosophies are challenged, and they end-up as reluctantly accepted co-researchers in far dark corners of the lab, begging for bucks. I know.

While it seems directly consistant with disease research to study epidemiologies (histories, hosts, locations, factors including environmental degredation, etc.), most is geared around the studies earmarked for outcomes by combining a lethal agent to the pathogenic threat. True, escape of a natural antagonistic control is real, gene modifications are now mainstream and a requisite to pre-release, unlike Monsanto's speed in pushing for approval of the Terminator. The sad reality of conventional pest controls is to forgo the methods of accurate assessments that would insure a more effective treatment plan. Just like war with Afganistan -no one has yet to see an accurate intelligence assessment.

There is a native microbe from the land of the Asian beetle, just like there's one from Brasil for the infamous fireant, yet, billions of dollars have been introduced and applied to control programs of obviously failed developed chemical protocols and the program for bacterial and viral controls was sadly scuttled. Money won, good honest work failed. The excuse for runaway germs is a lame one - as all the protection we pay for at Detrick and Plum Island attest, they don't work anyway. If fear of consequence is real, then what about the cancer clusters around the country implicating toxic runaway synthesized poisons?

Funding is desperately needed in favor of more reasonably workable intervention programs, biological controls and research that perhaps may EXCLUDE the giant oil and chemical interests, but it's time we start thinking with our minds instead of our pocketbook.

This reminds me of our work in Texas here - the lab at A&M discounted all avenues of assumption when they came across one flawed study that suggested wilt couldn't live south of the Mason Dixon line. Guess what happened from there? Look what we have now. Without long-range thinking and shortcutting conclusions, the ALAMO program was initiated and mutations of the disease because of this, resulted in the most costly hardwood disease epidemic America has witnessed.

I'm simple suggesting that a democratic and fair approach to dictators of disease controls show all the cards of science before some private industry chemical label gets the effective promotion and blind followers put in place. As arborists we have the unique opportunity to lead science with a perspective from the tree tops that could allow a more universal understanding of the true nature of the beast, not just one from the closed labs at Ivy League working from statistics and blank check writing.

Simple things we do that could have a monumental effect. No firewood movement from infected trees. More effective sanitizing techniques that won;t destroy our equipment, and removal of periphery stands. Systemic injections of deterrents and exposures to reproductive inhibitors have and will continue to fail, just look at the maps, but this is state of the art now. That;s what must change.