iowatreepests.typepad.comIowa Insects & You!

Iowa Insects & You! Iowa Insects & You! Information about Iowa, insects, what we do and how it effects you. August 12, 2009 *sigh* Firewood 4 Sale All day Sunday we watched the waves of thunderstorms pass over our house, leaving behind a couple inches of rain. (Thank you!) Later we learned that about 20 miles up the road those storms took a nasty turn and left behind one-to-three inch hailstones. (Um, no thank you! ) Eldora, Iowa, seems to caught the brunt of it.What does this have to do with trees? Well, besides the fact that many of the trees look like early spring because only small green stubs of leaves are left. And, many are no longer upright with roots in the ground. However, this is the sign I saw today when I drove through town, and it made me a little queasy, to say the least. Why do I *sigh*? Because this is the perfect set up for moving tree pests, such as emerald ash borer, to new locations. NO, I'm not saying EAB is in Eldora - I'm just trying to remind everyone to buy local and burn local . There are consequence to our actions when we drag firewood from town to town, and state to state. *sigh* Posted at 08:42 AM in Agriculture , Insects , Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) August 11, 2009 There is No 'Express Lane' When it Comes to Insect Surveys ...AreWeThereYet? AreWeThereYet? AreWeThereYet?... Looking for EAB is much like being in a small vehicle with an inquisitive toddler. No matter how fast we're driving, it's just not fast enough for the passenger. I've received several calls in the past few weeks - all wanting to know why EAB-updates are lacking. The answer is not really exciting, it's not a spy-thriller movie plot - - it's just that the traps are out there and we're letting them work. (If you're into instant gratification, I'd advise against a career as an entomologist.) USDA plans to start picking up the EAB purple traps this week, starting in southern Iowa and working their way north. Each trap is taken down, thoroughly inspected for suspect beetles. Suspect beetles are cleaned up (they're full of glue) and then send to USDA for further diagnostics. The process of sending suspect beetles to USDA can occur very quickly - 48 hours - if we believe it's the real thing. And then there are the 420+ sentinel, or trap, trees established around Iowa by the DNR. Those trees will remain intact until this fall/winter, and then be individually debarked, looking for larvae. I liken it to a needle-in-a haystack kind of task if the trees are evaluated too soon - before the larvae can put some weight on, to make them easier to find. Hang loose everyone - news will be forthcoming! Posted at 10:39 AM in Agriculture , Insects , Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) July 07, 2009 I Say Bagworm, You Say Webworm Yep, the phone has been ringing. This week the two popular subjects have been earwigs (not a tree pest) and bagworms (a tree pest) . Donald Lewis, Iowa State University Extension Entomologist) posted a GREAT article on bagworms back in February. I highly recommend it to everyone. The bagworm (or as I like to call them, Totally Organic Christmas Ornaments) appears to be having another banner year. If you can't pick them off, this is a great time to treat. Control recommendations are listed in Donald's article. There is much confusion about between bagworms and webworms. Bagworms are quite petite, ranging from .25" to 2", elongated packets that a larva lives in, and carried around like a snail shell. Webworms are those large silken, 'webby' masses often seen at the end of tree branches in late summer. Bagworms harm trees. They can eventually kill trees if left untreated. Fall webworms are aesthetically unpleasing, but do not harm healthy, well-established trees. Remove what the structure from the tree if possible, or let Mother Nature take care of the issue in her own time. Friends don't let tree friends carry bags. Photo from James B. Hanson, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org Posted at 09:52 PM in Agriculture , Insects | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) June 25, 2009 Lions, TIGERS and Bears, Oh My! I have to hand it to my fellow Iowans, I'm impressed. Really impressed. As a kid, I sought the elusive tiger beetle. It taunted me while walking beans*, running just ahead of me, out of my reach. But now it seems like I'm presented a tiger beetle on a daily basis, as crafty Iowans are adept at catching them! What's with the tiger beetle? Well, it's green and shiny, and when the combination of green and shiny show up on an insect many folks immediately think they have an emerald ash borer. But - take a close look, the head is narrower than the body. It looks like it has a set of shoulders, no? The emerald ash borer is smooth on the sides, like a missile, or surfboard. No shoulders! Here are a few links to some great picture-based screening tools for determining if you've caught an EAB beetle. Illinois Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey diagnostic sheet (2 pages) Insects in Minnesota That May Be Confused With EAB by Minnesota State Univ ersi ty Extension and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Native Borers and EAB Look-Alikes by Michigan State University Extension ------------------------------- * Walking beans = Archaic method of weed control in soybean fields AND a means of torture to all farmer's sons/daughters back in the 'old days'. ------------------------------- Tiger beetle photo - Copyright 2009, Aubrey Scott EAB photo - Howard Russell , Michigan State University, Bugwood.org Posted at 04:11 PM in Insects | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) June 15, 2009 Web Links ... Get Your Hot Webs Links Here People ask me where to find EAB information on the web on a regular basis. And, I have a pile of links that I've found and bookmarked ... but since you don't have access to my computer, my links are not much use to you unless I share them. Here's a run down of some new, and old standards that may interest you. Drs. Mark Shour and Jesse Randall at Iowa State University have put together a short document, Suggestions for Emerald Ash Borer Community Preparation . HOT off the presses! ISU's new publication on EAB Management Options , PM-2084. NOTE that right there on the first page, it says "Treatments are suggested only if you live within 15 miles of a confirmed EAB infestation. Treatment outside this risk zone is not prudent. Known infestations are given at www.emeraldashborer.info ." A longer, more in-depth publication (and also brand new!), authored by experts in several cooperating states is also available, Insecticide Options for Protecting Ash Trees from Emerald Ash Borer. There are several sites with great EAB-look-alike picture resources ... but I'm saving those until the next blog entry. Posted at 08:40 PM in Agriculture , Insects | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) June 11, 2009 Evil Flower Beds?! What the heck? In my last post I eluded to a couple of usual culprits that often rear their ugly heads in the calls I get on dead and dying ash trees. In that post I talked about topping trees. Today’s post focuses on *evil* flower planters around tree trunks. I Googled ‘flower beds around trees’ and was presented with 286,000 hits, give or take a few, for building instructions! I admit, I did not look at all 286,000 internet hits … but, I did scan a few pages and what I saw confirmed my suspicions. It’s not popular to admit that installing flower beds under trees may not be in the tree’s best interest. In fact, an eHow website said “As trees grow, they begin to compete with the lawn around them. The tree pulls the water and the nutrients from the ground, which may make certain areas of you lawn look bad. Planting a flowerbed around the tree helps the tree and the lawn.” Why am I so anti-lower bed under a tree? Here’s a quote from a site hosted by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) that really says it best… “Smothering Roots by Adding Soil. Most people are surprise...