While the emerald ash borer (EAB) may seem like old news in Ohio, USDA APHIS continues to provide a monthly updated map tracking the EAB infestation in North America. While the map is updated and then distributed on a monthly schedule, occassionally we share this map via BYGL to keep this invasive species on the radar. 

Within the last week, there have been several reports of gypy moth (Lymantria dispar) infestations to the county Extension Offices in NW Ohio, specifically Defiance, Fulton, Henry and Lucas Counties from landowners in those counties. 

While the spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) (SLF) has not been detected in Ohio, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), along with the Ohio State University (OSU) and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) are urging Ohioans to continue to be on the look-out for this invasive insect. Many are using the Great Lakes Early Detection Network (GLEDN) App to report tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), a favorite food or host for this plant hopper, especially as an adult, and then revisiting the tree looking for signs and symptoms of SLF throughout the year.

One of the most striking beetles that you'll ever find in Ohio is the fittingly named Fiery Searcher Caterpillar Hunter (Calosoma scrutator). But be careful. This meat-eating beetle is accurately described as beauty with a bite.

Lace bugs (order Hemiptera; family Tingidae) are so-named because of the lace-like pattern of veins and membranes in their wings. Most lace bug species found trees in Ohio live on the lower leaf surface.

All "bugs" aren't bad. Entomologists call insects that belong to the suborder Heteroptera (order Hemiptera) the "true bugs" and insects belonging to the hemipteran family Reduviidae are collectively known as “Assassin Bugs.” The family includes over 190 species in North America and they are all meat-eaters. The common name for the family clearly describes how these predatory stealthy hunters make a living.

I recently visited two landscapes in southwest Ohio with medium sized red maples (Acer rubrum) there were heavily infested with cottony maple leaf scale (Pulvinaria acericola). However, I would not have known the trees were infested had I not walked beneath their canopies.

Check out this week's Turfgrass Times - covering a little bit of everything turfgrass! 

"Is my winterberry a male or female?" "I thought I bought a female and a male but I don't have any berries." 

Comments and questions like the ones above usually come during the fall or winter when the bright red berries begin to show up on Ilex verticillata, winterberry. But at that point in the season it is too late to tell. If you purchase a female but don't have a male (or the right male) and end up with no berries, you may think that you bought a male and go out and buy another female. 

Winterberry is dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female plants...

Woolly Alder Aphids (Prociphilus tessellatus, family Aphididae) produce large, white fluffy colonies on the branches of their namesake host (Alnus spp.). Their appearance has been variously described as looking like white pom-poms, cotton candy, or white hair covering alder branches.