The National Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) Eradication Program Scores a "Win"

Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) is potentially the most devastating non-native pest to have ever arrived in North America. The beetle kills trees belonging to 12 genera in 9 plant families. This includes all native maples, a preferred host. The ripple effect across many forest ecosystems also means the potential loss of plant and animal species dependent upon those ecosystems.
Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs

Workshop on Treating for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) and Elongate Hemlock Scale (EHS)

Tom Macy (Forest Health Program Administrator, Division of Forestry, Ohio Department of Natural Resources) has organized a workshop on treatment options for two non-native invasive pests threatening hemlock in Ohio: hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) and Elongate Hemlock Scale (EHS).
Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs
Dave Shetlar

Fall Color may Indicate MORE than the approach of Autumn!

I received a call recently from Miguel Preza, the Integrated Pest Manager for a local nursery about the onset of early fall color. He said something very helpful, “If the tree or shrub looks different than the others, take a closer look. In a planting of red Maples Acer rubrum, a couple of trees were showing fall color ahead of the others. On closer inspection, the trees in color were infested with oyster shell scale.
Published on
Authors
Thomas deHaas

Bees love the SON!

Seven-son Flower draws hundreds of bees. In the fall we think of pollinators as mostly flowers and perennials. We can forget that trees are some of our most important pollinators. And one of the best in the fall is Seven-son Flower (Heptacodium miconioides)
Published on
Authors
Thomas deHaas
The Rise of Lazarus Lizards boggs.47@osu.edu Sun, 09/22/2019 - 13:10
So-called Lazarus Lizards were a topic in both a diagnostic walk-about and a meeting I was involved with last week. The lizard's common name is influenced by where you stand, literally. If you're an American herpetologist, you would call them European Wall Lizards. If you live in Europe, they are Common Wall Lizards. If you're a native Cincinnatian, you would likely call them Lazarus Lizards.
Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs

Last Hurrah for Catalpa Hornworms

Participants in the Greater Cincinnati BYGLive! Diagnostic Walk-About held this past Monday in the Boone County Arboretum (Union, KY) viewed second-generation Catalpa Hornworms (Ceratomia catalpae) enjoying a last hurrah before pupating this season. Their discovery led to a discussion on host preference, parasitoids, and a virus spun out of a wasp's genome
Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs

Venomous Caterpillars

Participants in last week's Ohio Plant Diagnostic Workshop looked at but didn't touch, the Smaller Parasa (Parasa chloris). They kept their distance because the deceptively named caterpillar packs a venomous punch that's far from small. As with many creatures in Nature (e.g. crocodilians, mamba snakes, grizzly bears, etc.); these caterpillars should not be handled.
Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs

Say Hello to My Little Friends

Participants at last week's Ohio Plant Diagnostic Workshop in Secrest Arboretum (OSU OARDC) viewed the round, pointed galls produced by the Oak Rough Bulletgall Wasp on its namesake host. They also observed – at a distance – the buzzing security detail protecting the immature gall wasps developing within the galls.
Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs