Yellow poplar weevil (Odontopus calceatus) is a snout beetle that causes mostly cosmetic damage on tuliptree (also known as yellow poplar and tulip poplar), sassafras, and certain magnolias. I noted damage on tuliptree this past week while also noting developing cicada tree flagging also occurring on tuliptree. Damage on tuliptree leaves includes little bean-shaped scar-like pits in leaves due to epidermal feeding by the weevil adults and larger leaf blotch mines by the weevil larvae. Damage is usually just cosmetic, but in outbreaks may result is a scorched appearance to the...

Many have noted this Spring that there are not as many red maple (Acer rubrum) seedlings popping up in flower beds. This was illustrated for me this past Saturday (June 11) when crossing the footbridge adjacent to the B & O Harmar Bridge, spanning the Muskingum River from Marietta proper to Harmar Village in southern Ohio.  I visited this bridge for the first time on June 21, 2013 and at the time took a picture then of the many red maple seedlings sprouting from the wooden railroad ties of the railroad bridge. This year, almost nada for red maple seedlings.  

If you look at a map of the emergence of Brood V of the 17-year cicadas, Magicicada septendecim (what a great name!), for example at cicadamania.com, it looks like almost the entire eastern half of Ohio was destined for the same experience. As we know by now, though, it is not one size fits all. Go to the OSU Mansfield Campus and the cacophony is big-time, go to Wooster and it is the late spring quietude, until dog-day cicadas, which we hear every year arrive later in the summer. Twenty miles south at Mohican State Park and the male cicadas choir is signing in noticeable numbers....

On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced that they will begin aerial treatments designed to disrupt gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) mating this summer in central Ohio. 

The gypsy moth is a non-native species that feeds on more than 300 different trees and shrubs, and is especially fond of oaks (Quercus spp.) while in its devastating caterpillar stage.  While healthy plants can usually withstand one or two years of defoliation, repeat feeding injury coupled with a drought or other pest pressures, can cause host plant ...

While BYGL Alerts are intended to provide fast-hitting information, sometimes it's important for us to take a little more time - and space - to dig deeper.  Our Southwest Ohio Diagnostic Walk-About group visited Stanley Rowe Arboretum yesterday and revisited an interesting nutrient deficiency problem that was observed by the group on Colorado blue spruce during our Walk-About last year.

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The golden-backed snipe fly (Chrysopilus thoracicus) is one of the most beautiful insects you'll run across in Ohio forests.   Both the common and scientific names are very descriptive for this native fly.  The top of the thorax (= the "back") is covered in highly reflective golden colored hairs; "Chysopilus" means "golden hair."  The fly's body and wing veins are bluish-black and the abdomen has lateral white markings.

Little appears to be known regarding the fly's life-style.  The adults have been observed visiting the flowers of a number of native plants,...

Clusters of fluffy, white planthopper nymphs are appearing on the stems of annuals, perennials, and the lower branches of trees and shrubs in southern Ohio.  Planthoppers belong to the Family Flatidae (Order Hemiptera; Suborder Auchenorrhyncha), and are sometimes referred to as "flatids."  Planthopper adults are 1/4- 3/8" long, purplish blue, lime green, or powdery white, and they hold their broad wings vertically in a tent-like fashion covering the sides of the body and legs.

One of the wondrous sights this time of the year is the ethereal inflorescent pufflike panicles of smokebush or smoketree (Cotinus) flower heads.  There are two species, our native Cotinus obovatus, a larger plant much used on the High Line Park in New York City and Cotinus coggygria, the European smokebush.  This genus is in the Anacardiaceae family, cousins to poison ivy (Rhus or Toxicodendron species), cashew, mango, and pistachio. 

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Peonies in central Ohio are now finished blooming but wow what a bloom this year.  They had just about perfect weather to provide a wonderful display.  Now they they are finished blooming, you can clean up the dead blooms (deadhead) and have pretty nice looking foliage plants in the perennial bed the rest of the season.  Remove the dead blooms by going down into the plant, going below the top layer of foliage. 

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I recently looked at some elms on Columbus city streets and took some images of two insects on one leaf, though mostly on lower leafs and trunk sprouts. One insect was a wasp leafminer, Fenusa ulmi.  The larvae of this insect “mine” plant leaf cells for their nutritive value. It is a native insect and generally is worse on non-native elm species and those hybrids with some Asian or European elm genetics. Typically, insecticides are not recommended but labeled systemic insecticides may be useful in situations where applications are warranted.

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