During Wednesday's diagnostic walk-about in Shawnee Lookout - Great Parks of Hamilton County, Kathy Smith (OSU Extension Program Director - Forestry), spotted an unusual spittlebug on common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis).  The spittlebug nymphs were confined to the stems of the fruit (drupe); we could find none feeding anywhere else on two heavily infested trees.

Thanks to the sharp eyes of Lenny Farlee (Extension Forester, Purdue University), the congregated yellownecked caterpillar (Datana ministra) colony shown in this picture was discovered yesterday during a diagnostic walk-about he, Kathy Smith (OSU Extension Program Director - Forestry), and I lead in Shawnee Lookout Park in southwest Ohio.  You may recognize the genus, Datana, because we've had a bumper crop of walnut caterpillars (D. integerrima) this season (see Alert on July 15, 2016, "Walnut Caterpillars on the Prowl").

 

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What is causing the odd leaf chlorosis on this red maple?  Regardless of what you think is causing the symptom, it's only a guess unless you soil test.  Soil tests provide you with information that serves the same purposes as the information that blood tests provide to physicians:  soil tests are like a blood test for the soil.

Jim Chatfield and I visited the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, in Delaware, OH, on Monday where they are waging a battle to eliminate Elm Yellows (EY) from their American Elm Restoration Project research plots.  I last saw the disease in southwest Ohio in 2013. 

The problem is that American elms (Ulmus americana) that are resistant to Dutch Elm Disease (DED) have no known resistance to Elm Yellows (EY).  DED is caused by a fungal infection; EY is caused by a phytoplasma which is a type of bacterium.  DED fungi plug the xylem.  The EY phytoplasma...

Gray Leaf Spot has been confirmed on perennial ryegrass in Ohio! On Friday July 29, 2016 two cases of the disease were confirmed in the Clinic. This is at least a month earlier than normally detected in Ohio. Both cases were in central Ohio and at sites that have had a history of the disease. This can be a very destructive disease to ryegrass, both annual and perennial. To date this is only a serious disease on ryegrasses in the Midwest.

Often, one of the typical options offered when attempting to control an identified pest, is to simply do nothing!  In this year of extremely hot, dry conditions in NE Ohio, deciding to not do anything about a pest, turned into a disaster.  The pest involved was the two-spotted spider mite, which was happily feeding on tomatoes growing in a high tunnel.

 

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  As my wife and I walked through the Virginia woods in Shenandoah National Park last week I realized once again, that I knew less than I thought about a familiar genus – Rubus, a member of the Rosaceae family of related genera. My favorite is Rubus occidentalis,

Many people think Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)is nothing more than a roadside weed and have never taken in to consideration its outstanding ornamental characteristics.  It is a large plant which needs space, but when planted in mass it can provide exceptional flowering and provide height when needed in the landscape.

Every year in NE Ohio at the Drapescape, my wife and I anticipate being able to sit out on our deck and gaze upon the stars in the middle of the day.  How is this possible you ask?  Easily answered.  Because we are both enjoying the emergence of our favorite oriental hybrid lily, which is in bloom right now, called Lilium orientalis ‘Stargazer’ or commonly known as the Stargazer lily.

 

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While on our BYGL Conference Call earlier today, I received the monthly Emerald Ash Borer email update which includes a map that includes the latest changes of EAB detections in North America.  A shout out to Douglas Bopp, GIS Support Northeast Area with USDA APHIS PPQ who regularly sends this information out to communicate the latest information. 

 

Changes and/or additions included in this map since the July 1, 2016 map are as follows: The addition of initial county detections in: Vanderburgh County, IN; Harrison, Van Buren and Washington Counties,...