[anymouse]

Apparently nature is attacking nature.

Tough bug to feast on Hemlock, a source of a deadly poison.

Although tried natural preditory bugs and funguses, and man-made insecticides (not all known insecticides like DDT) have not worked, one has to wonder what would happen to the Hemlock population without man's intervention to save it?

[B Knotts]

The poison comes from the hemlock plant.

The hemlock tree, is completely unrelated to the plant, and is not poisonous.

[PaulJ]

Here in Connecticut it's sad to see what's happening due to this blight. The hemlocks, which like to grow on the banks of rivers & streams, are dying, which is causing the water's banks to erode at an alarming rate.
I spoke with a forest ranger recently, at a State Park, and he was very pessimistic as to what could be done. He basically conceded that the hemlock forests will be gone.And here in CT, we have a lot of hemlock forests. But, I suppose, the deciduous trees that replace them, will be pretty in the Fall.

[longjack]

University of Pennsylvania..POISON HEMLOCK - Conium maculatum (More Pictures Here)

This site has some information about the Hemlock Tree and Plant, including medicinal recipes.

Medicinal Herbs Online

I love Hemlocks. I still remember them on the rivers I fished as a kid.

longjack

[Kay Ludlow]

Natural populations of species ebb and flow in nature. Sometimes when stressed (like happened with Gypsy Moth and Oaks) many perish but some survive, with better strength for the future. In other cases (like glacial ages) the stress is too great and the species die out.

I expect that we will lose a lot of our Hemlocks, but those that survive will drop seeds and new forests of stronger, more resistent hemlocks will spring up. Will it be the same again in our lifetimes? Probably not, but the cycle of things isn't dependent on any one of us being here to see it...