Posted on 05/14/2005 4:34:14 PM PDT by aculeus
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Despite dozens of interceptions at U.S. ports, a public enemy has infiltrated the nation's borders. Taken captive in Fulton County, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell University expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in the eastern United States.
The discovery of a single specimen of Sirex noctilio Fabricius, an Old World woodwasp, raises red flags across the nation because the invasive insect species has devastated up to 80 percent of pine trees in areas of New Zealand, Australia, South America and South Africa. If established in the United States, it would threaten pines coast-to-coast, particularly in the pine-dense states in the Southeast. One target would be loblolly pines in Georgia.
Finding one bug in a trap is no small matter. Where there's one, there's likely to be more, says E. Richard Hoebeke, a Cornell senior extension associate in entomology. "Whenever you find an insect in a trap, it probably is established."
Hoebeke was sifting through thousands of bark beetles caught in routine screening traps set by the New York State Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) program, in search of any of 10 exotic species of bark beetles, when he stumbled across the specimen of S. noctilio.
"I recognized it immediately," says Hoebeke, a taxonomic expert who has examined tens of thousands of insects sent to him from agencies and scholars over the past 25 years. "I'm always on the lookout for exotics -- for any species that are not yet established in the United States and known to be potential pests."
He published a report on his discovery in a recent issue of the Newsletter of the Michigan Entomological Society (50: 24-25, 2005).
Both federal and state regulatory agencies currently are carrying out a large dragnet, setting multiple traps in places they suspect the woodwasp may be doing its destructive work. The effort is widespread because, Hoebeke says, "The potential damage from this exotic woodwasp could be monumental."
Since 1985 U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service inspectors have intercepted seven male S. noctilio at various borders; all had come with tile and marble imports from Spain and Italy. In addition, one female was found in a warehouse in Indiana in 2002. Experts suspect that the female alien that was trapped in Fulton County probably hitchhiked into the area on a wooden crate or in packing material.
The woodwasp, which is native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, where it rarely is a pest, kills pines, and sometimes several other types of conifers, by introducing a toxic mucus and spores of a toxic fungus when the female lays her eggs through the bark and into the sapwood of the tree.
"If S. noctilio is found to be established in New York or elsewhere in the U.S., we could launch a rapid response to contain and control the infestation," says Hoebeke. A biological control method using a parasitic nematode has been remarkably effective in other countries in the southern hemisphere where the woodwasp has been accidentally introduced, he says.
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Cornell University.
When I first saw the headline, I thought it said "Woody Allen...."
And cause a flood of cheap pine furniture to flood the market, as well as unwashed protestors protesting that they are cut down and harvested for wood, rather than be left to rot.
man...the pine bettle here in the South the last couple of years has been devasting.
I make trips for several weekends to Lexington, KY for ballgames from Woodstock, GA and the pine population from Knoxville to the Kentucky border is being eaten alive.
"I recognized it immediately," says Hoebeke, a taxonomic expert who has examined tens of thousands of insects sent to him from agencies and scholars over the past 25 years. "I'm always on the lookout for exotics -- for any species that are not yet established in the United States and known to be potential pests."
Wish I had been a fly on the wall when he found this one! Though being the Bug Geek that he is, he probably contained himself with visions of pinning it into one of his velvet-lined shadowboxes that line his dark, scarey house on the hill...
*Cue Creepy Music*
Actually, I'm glad someone spotted this. I've been battling wasps in my greenhouse this season. They are out of their minds this year for some reason. Must be because this guy has their Queen. ;)
And in Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, Pennsyvania, New york.... Every where I drive that has them, I see tracts of brown, insect killed pines and firs.
Damned illegals; close the fricken bord..sorry; wrong thread for that solution.
We need to get back to aerial spraying, and screw the Great Unwashed.
We need DDT and to let the forest fires burn and destroy the insects. I have never understood why we spend so much money putting out wildfires, yes protect the cities and towns, but let the forest burn. The enviro-whacko's can never seem to comprehend that the forests will regenerate on their own. It's called nature.
And then go in and salvage log it, whether they like it or not.
bump
yeah. That would even drive them crazier LOL.
Dang! Shouldn't that be "Undocumented Woodwasp"?
I really hope they keep those undocumented woodwasps in NY. If the pines are attacked by those undocumented workers, Georgia is going to be denuded.
Great site with pictures and info.
http://www.forestresearch.co.nz/topic.asp?topic=Forest%20and%20Timber%20Insects%20in%20New%20Zealand%20No%2E%2020&title=Sirex%20Woodwasp
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