I stepped out my back door on a balmy late summer Sunday, my, oh, my, what oh what did I see? No “giant doing cartwheels”, no “statue wearin' high heels”, no “tambourines and elephants playin’ in the band”, but yes a few “happy creatures dancing on the lawn”. “Doo, doo, doo”, what to see, “lookin’ out my back door?”

 

  1). Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) – see above image. Only last week I purchased and planted a new pawpaw seedling from Secrest Arboretum. I needed to since, even though our pawpaw tree bloomed for the past several years, and especially well this year,...

Participants in the S.W. Ohio BYGLive! Diagnostic Walk-About held this past Monday in the Boone County Arboretum (Union, KY) observed wafer-ash stems festooned with small, sticky, snowy-white masses. The masses could easily be mistaken for a soft scale, mealybug, or perhaps an insect egg mass. In fact, they are the "egg plugs" of the Two-Marked Treehopper (order Hemiptera; family Membracidae).

Participants in last Friday's 84th Ohio Plant Diagnostic Workshop held in the OSU OARDC Secrest Arboretum braved experiencing bullet-like stings to view numerous bald-faced hornets buzzing Oak Bullet Galls. The galls were also drawing the attention of a few yellowjackets and other stinging insects as well as some flies and ants. Of course, the question on everyone's mind was why were these insects being drawn to the galls?

he late-season handiwork of the Basswood Leafroller (Pantographa limata, family Crambidae (Crambid Snout Moths)) clearly describes the unusual leaf-abodes created by this moth caterpillar. Individual translucent green caterpillars reside inside cigar-like nests created in a repeating three step process.

Participants at last week's First Annual Tree and Plant Diagnostic Walkabout Workshop held in Lake Hope State Park in Vinton County, OH, came across a group of striking black-and-yellow striped sawfly larvae feeding on hickory. I had never see this sawfly before and after exhausting all of my usual routes for identifying tree pests, I followed the advice commonly given to me by seeking professional help.

  Come one, come all. The Bent Science Salon officially opens in two weeks, on Thursday, September 21 at 7:00pm. First up: Weird Things in the Woods, channeled through a Weird Thing himself, yours truly, Jim Chatfield. This is only the first of these salons, continuing on the third Thursday of every month: next will be Dan Herms on Plant Phenology (Not Phrenology) and Climate Change, on October 19.

 

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I learned a valuable lesson during last week's First Annual Tree and Plant Diagnostic Walkabout Workshop held in the beautiful Lake Hope State Park in Vinton County, OH. If you want to find caterpillars, you should hike with Tom Macy, Forest Health Program Administer, with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry. Tom's cater-optic prowess is truly remarkable.

he late-season handiwork of the Basswood Leafroller (Pantographa limata, family Crambidae (Crambid Snout Moths)) clearly describes the unusual leaf-abodes created by this moth caterpillar. Individual translucent green caterpillars reside inside cigar-like nests created in a repeating three step process.

American beech (Fagus grandifolia) is one of our most elegant woodland and parkland trees; it puts the sylvan in silviculture. There are many problems afoot, however, both large and small.

 

  For this alert, though, let us set aside the death and life realities of killer beech bark disease and the Boggsian itty-bitty bite/peench story of the beech blight (boogie-woogie) aphids (http://bygl.osu.edu/node/883). Let us look at...

Last season, the unusual leaf symptoms caused by the Redbud Leaffolder on its namesake host were observed throughout Ohio. Questions regarding leaves turning brown after being folded over or "glued" together continued to come into Extension offices throughout September. This could be a repeat season based on what I've seen so far.