By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent LANSING, Mich. — A new wood boring insect has made its way into Michigan, but officials from the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) are emphasizing that this pest is nothing like the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).
The pest is called the Sirex Woodwasp, and it was most recently detected in Sanilac County, Mich. It was detected last year in Macomb County, Mich. The insect is a wood borer native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa and is a real threat to commercially produced pine trees.
“It is not like the ash borer, at least we don’t think so,” said Mike Philips, pest survey program manager for the MDA. “We don’t understand its biology very well here. It can be a very serious pest to our commercially produced pine trees. It is probably the most serious pest to commercially grown pine trees in the world.”
Michigan, however, doesn’t have a large population of commercially grown pine trees, so most likely it’s not a big threat to trees in the state. Commercially grown pine stock is a big industry in the southeastern United States. The big difference is how close together the trees are grown. On commercial tree farms, trees are placed close together, and that’s the environment the Sirex Woodwasp really loves.
“Our natural ecosystems are not overstocked with pine trees,” he said. “Our landscape and ornamental trees are out in the open, and are generally healthy. As such the Sirex Woodwasp is not a threat to these trees, either. Because there are still unknowns about how it’s going to respond to its new environment, we want to keep an eye on it.”
To that end more than 250 trapping locations have been established throughout the state. Officials from the USDA, MDA as well as staff from Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University helped to set up the traps. Unlike the purple, sticky EAB traps, the traps for the Sirex Woodwasp are funnel shaped and designed to look somewhat like a pine tree. A lure draws the insect in, but it can’t get out. The effort in the state is part of an international effort to keep the insect from spreading further into North America.
The Sirex Woodwasp was first detected in North America in Oswego, N.Y. in 2004. Since then it’s been found throughout central New York, northern Pennsylvania, southern Ontario and a single site in northern Vermont.
At the larval stage it tunnels within pine tree trunks, interrrupting the flow of water and nutrients, but a fungus and mucous the female introduces into the tree are mainly responsible for tree decline and death. This pest attacks two- and three-needled pine trees, including Austrian, Jack, Red and Scotch.
For more on the Sirex Woodwasp, visit Pest Alert on www.aphis.usda.gov
This farm news was published in the April 2, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
