With the recent pleasant spring weather, I hope many of you have had some time to get outside with your binoculars for a few hours of quality birding! Migrant songbirds have been making their way back to Ohio from warmer, tropical regions for the past several weeks now. Turkey vultures are soaring, Canada geese are nesting and many songbirds can be heard calling as their nesting season gears up. Eastern phoebes, red-winged blackbirds, yellow-rumped warblers, brown thrashers, blue gray gnatcatchers, wood thrush, hooded warblers, and common yellowthroats are just a few of the migrants that...

Overwintered European elm flea weevils (Orchestes alni) are attacking emerging elm leaves in southwest Ohio.  A close examination will reveal weevils feeding and frolicking (mating) among the newly expanding leaves.  Adults produce small feeding holes and females produce additional damage by laying eggs into mid-rib veins and major lateral veins of the leaves.

As leaves expand, the feeding holes become larger and more apparent producing the characteristic "shothole" leaf damage associated with this weevil.  Damage caused by oviposition also becomes more noticeable with...

Early instar European pine sawfly (Neodiprion sertifer) larvae are now large enough to cause noticeable damage to their pine hosts which include Scotch, mugo, red, jack, Table mountain, and Swiss mountain pines.  White and Austrian pines are occasional hosts.  The larvae are grayish-green with bulbous shiny black head capsules; their color and small size make the difficult to see as they feed on the needles. 

All larval stages feed in colonies and practice the same feeding behavior.  They start by aligning themselves with their head at the tip of a needle and...

Overwintered calico scale (Eulecanium cerasorum) females are now "puffing-up" and pumping out impressive quantities of clear, sugary honeydew in southwest Ohio.  This is a non-native "soft scale" meaning that mature scales are protected by a soft shell.  The scale's common name comes from the starkly contrasting calico pattern of black-and-white markings on the hemispherical-shaped shells of mature females.  The mature females measure about 1/4" in diameter and their distinct markings make them easy to recognize, particularly on bark and branches that are blackened by sooty mold...

On Thursday, April 20, 2016, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced that they will soon begin aerial treatments designed to control the gypsy moth population in Ohio.  Treatments on 1,474 acres in Perry, Ross and Scioto Counties will begin in late April, as larva and leaf development reaches the optimal threshold for treatment.

Brett Gates with ODA shared that treatments are administered using a low-flying aircraft that flies just above tree tops just like the photo shared with this article online.  High humidity, low...

On Friday, April 22, 2016 people across the world will be observing Earth Day.  United State Senator Gaylord Nelson was the founder and organizer of first Earth Day.  Observed beginning in 1970, Earth Day was developed as a day of education about environmental issues.  In 1990, Earth Day went global.  According to the Earth Day Network (EDN), over 200 million people in over 140 nations participate in this observation.  Some areas celebrate not just a single day, but rather an entire week. And the green industry could be recognized for celebrating Earth Day all year long! 

If you have lived in Ohio for any length of time, you have probably heard someone say, "if you don't like the weather, just wait, because it will change."  There was a big weather change that occurred just over a week ago.  On Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9, a storm bringing snow blew through Ohio.  Snowfall totals ranged from minor accumulations, up to 12".  Northwest Ohio seemed to get the brunt of the storm, and Toledo made the national news as the surprising April snow storm caught some off guard.  The snowfall total last weekend exceed any other measurable snowfall totals from...

Branch dieback in spruce can have many causes such as the generalized dieback we see as roots fail from root rot or various root injuries. Cytospora canker is a very well-known disease of spruce, particularly blue spruce (Picea pungens). A dead branch in a spruce is often attributed to Cytospora but that is not always the case as was evident in a recent blue spruce sample.

Look closely at the dying branch. Trace the dead and dying tissue back to where it transitions to healthy. Carefully scrape the bark at that transition looking for discoloration of the...

Non-native Invasive species issues are commanding a lot of natural resource professional's attention these days. Whether it concerns insects, diseases, plants, mammals or aquatic species there is something out there for everyone! One thing that is true across the board is that early detection is key to dealing more effectively with all of these.

As a group of Extension professionals were discussing our new Asian longhorned beetle infestation in 2011 we kept coming back to how do we get these things reported early when they are still on a relatively small scale. We were...

Ever wonder why when passing a Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) in flower, one week the blooms appear to be a green-yellowish cast and then suddenly, a little while later, the blooms appear to have turned red?  Then the questions begin like, did I misidentify the tree or did I really see light yellow blooms on the branches?  First and foremost, you are not going crazy, and in the case of the silver maple, it is perfectly normal to see both colors of blooms!  According to Micheal A. Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, silver maple blooms are described as follows: "...