Last week Sarah Johnson at The Nature Conservancy reminded me that early November to late March is the time of year to be on the lookout for hemlock wooly adelgid.
The Nature Conservancy, Pennsylvania DCNR, and the US Forest Service are tracking the advance of hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA) in hemlock conservation areas and the High Allegheny Plateau of northwestern PA and western NY. They need your help.
Hemlock wooly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), originally from Japan, kills eastern hemlocks in 4-20 years by sucking the lifeblood out of them. A hemlock with an adelgid infestation like the one above is doomed.
By knowing where HWA has newly arrived, the survey may be able to treat key trees until a winter-hardy biological agent is ready.
So if you’re out birding in Pennsylvania’s north woods(*) and you see these white wooly balls at the base of needles on the undersides of hemlock branches, it’s the dreaded adelgids. Note your location and contact one of the folks on this list. Do NOT take a sample.
If you’d like to participate in the official survey, call or send email to Sarah Johnson at sejohnson@tnc.org, 717-232-6001 Ext 231.
(photo of hemlock wooly adelgid courtesy Sarah Johnson, The Nature Conservancy)
(*) The survey location runs from Cook Forest to New York’s Allegany State Park.
I hate those little blighters. Killed every hemlock in my neighborhood here in Rhode Island. I had a tree service spray my hemlocks but the next rain would remove spray and the bugs returned. So sad.
Hi Kate. Did you know we’re making a film about Cook Forest’s battle with HWA?
http://www.wildexcellencefilms.com/blog/2015/9/20/an-army-of-one
Melissa, thanks for letting me know. Very cool!