Hemlock Wooley Adelgid

[sprucebunny]

Here is a website about it.
http://www.saveourhemlocks.org/controls/my_prop.shtml#intro

Has anyone any experience with it ?

Is it affecting your area ?

(I'm sorry if this has been talked about elsewhere. 'search' is not working for me )

[bitternut]

Sprucebunny I have quite a few fir trees in my yard that appeared to have the problem over 20 years ago. I am not sure if it was also on the white pines as well. I never really checked it out to see exactly what it was but it has been gone for some time now. There was no treatment of the trees but it just went away and I had forgotten about it till reading your post.

Are you having an outbreak of this condition in your area?

[sprucebunny]

It is reported to have reached Southern Maine.

A couple years ago there was a woolly bug of some sort in a hemlock but I blasted them with the hose and haven't seen any other signs.

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience or news. There's lots of hemlock around here and I like them. I'm going to need to plant some evergreens in the next couple of years and I'm trying to gather information about pests and diseases and make a guess as to what species is most likely to survive to sawlog size/form.

[Don P]

We're getting hammered by them pretty hard around here in sw VA. Most hemlocks have adelgid trouble to some degree, we're coming off a few dryish years, I doubt that has helped. I paddled the New River this morning and saw many dead and dying hemlocks with the sparse ghostly white look. Going to one job we drive through Jefferson Nat'l forest for several miles, same story. A cabin I restored a couple of years ago had one of the old hemlocks that a great grandmother of the present owner had planted land on it early this summer. At least around here I think the character of the forest is changing.
We have had another adelgid of some sort on the white pines as well. They look bad but don't seem to be doing damage 

[KGNC]

I've got over a hundred Hemlocks, some are old growth trees 36-40" diameter. Last year I saw the first sign of these bugs. This year all of my trees have them and a number of them are looking very stressed. I bet most will all be dead in two years at the present rate. I talked to a tree service that treats hemlocks with a injection system. He gave me a price of about $30k to treat them all  and I would have to have it done about every three years. To rich for me. I truely hate to see them die off but don't see may options.

[Raphael]

  It was doing a number on the mid-Hudson valley a little over ten years ago.  There was a lot of concern for the Hemlocks on Mt.Beacon as they were huge old growth trees with little or no access to remove them if and when they died.  I was keeping a couple Hemlock hedges going by spraying twice a year, but never found a truly permanent solution much less something that was feasable for use in the woods.
  Since I moved back to CT I haven't seen it but I've only got four Hemlocks on 90+ acres so there's little chance of it impacting us directly.

[sprucebunny]

Thanks everyone. I'm just trying to gather info about how fast it's moving and if anything is being done about it. Raphael's info hints that it isn't moving very fast.

Here is a USDA site that has some informative PDFs.

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/hwa/

[SwampDonkey]

If bugboy didn't disappear from this forum in his move to Idaho he could fill us in on it. He did some work with it at V-Tech. I think he did post some notes on it though if you go to his profile and click on his recent posts, which were back in January I think.

If he doesn't soon surface, I might have to take a trip out there and roust him out. 

[KGNC]

From what I have read it is moving much faster through the south. Up north the cold helps keep them in check during the winter.

[Phorester]

It is very common in my area of NW Virginia.  I even have it in several hemlocks in my back yard.  I have sprayed them every year for several years, but I think it is just getting worse and will eventually take them.

Eastern hemlock is my favorite forest tree.  One of the prettiest places in the woods I have found in my work area was a 2 -3 acre grove of magnificient 20 - 36 inch diameter towering hemlocks next to a mountain stream in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  With its thick carpet of needles, it was a very quiet, relaxing spot.  Deep shade from the tall hemlocks.  They are now all dead from this adelgid. It is now a hot, sunny spot clearcut by the adelgid with a thick cover of sapling sized red maple, black gum, and other understory species released to the sun by the death of the hemlocks.  Very distressing. 

Hemlock is not a highly valuable species in VA.  Coupled with the fact that this adelgid starts in the lower tree branches, which means that aerial spraying won't work and therefore control would have to be done on every individual hemlock in the woods, no practical control measures have been developed to control this insect in Virginia.   Yard trees can be treated, but not forest trees.

[SwampDonkey]

Phorester, I hope the insect doesn't turn to the red spruce up there in the mountains....err down there from my perspective. Seen some nice white-pine-sized red spruce in small stands, maybe you can find some near a stream. I do know what you miss from those stands though, I've seen such situations/conditions in small isolated stands untouched by logging because of terrain. Nice and clean underneath and deep shade as you say, but sometimes not deep enough to keep the striped maple at bay. Seen some 6 " dbh striped maple working it's way up through hemlock canopy.  Some day I'm gonna transplant a small bunch to a spot on the woodlot. I like hemlock to, even if it's vertually worthless (economically) in my area.  It makes a nice legacy tree.

[Don P]

I know what you mean Phorester, this too tough to log grove is atop about a 40' undercut cliff shelter at one end of our place. They have it bad, probably only another year or 2. That grove is mostly lefties, kinda interesting. The carolina's here have it too.



SD, I sawed some red spruce from in the nat'l forest last year. Southern Pine Beetle got them  .

[SwampDonkey]

The threat a little south of here is the balsam Woolly Adelgid (aphid) Adelges piceae on balsam fir = xmas trees. I don't see it in my woods yet, but they say it's moving north. It was introduced from Europe.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/nr/fid/fidls/fidl118.htm

[Ron Scott]

YEP, IT'S IN MICHIGAN (from Bill Cook Extension Forester)

A preliminary note from Deb McCullough (MSU Entomology & Forestry) . . .

Yet another invasive forest pest has come to Michigan forests.  On Aug. 21, hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) was found on hemlock trees planted in the Harbor Springs area (near Petosky) in Emmet County.  Apparently, 30 trees were imported in 2003 from a nursery in an infested county in West Virginia.  They were planted as landscape trees in four sites, all within the Harbor Springs area.  Personnel from the MI Dept. of Ag did a preliminary survey last week.  They were able to trace all 30 trees with the help of the landscaper.  They found one or more infested trees at two of the four sites.  At least a few large, native hemlocks were infested at one of the sites.

Hemlock woolly adelgid is a sap-feeding insect native to Asia.  After hatching, the immature stage (called crawlers) can be dispersed by wind, migrating birds and of course, people.  It has two generations per year and dispersal occurs in the spring and again in the early summer.  HWA arrived in the eastern US around 1950 and is now established in MD, MA, CT and areas of WV, VA, NC, PA and other states.  It feeds at the base of needles and produces white woolly material (ovisacs).  As HWA populations build, the vigor of the tree decreases.  HWA is quite capable of killing trees itself, typically after 4 to 10 years of infestation.  When drought, defoliation, or other stress affects infested trees, mortality rates are especially high.  It has severely affected hemlocks in New England, esp. in states like MD and CT and more recently, the Appalachian region.

We have been concerned about this pest arriving in MI for several years.  HWA has been previously found on imported nursery stock on two occasions in the past 20 years, but the infested trees were quickly destroyed on-site.  This is the first time that reproducing populations of HWA have been found and the first time that native hemlock trees have been infested.

Hemlock is an important component of Michigan forests and valuable for many wildlife species ranging from black bear to brook trout.  Three species of songbirds are known to nest only in hemlock.   Most of the hemlock trees in MI are relatively old, making them highly vulnerable to HWA.  Hemlock regeneration is limited in many areas by deer browse.  Because of the critical ecological role played by hemlock in northern forests, the destructive nature of the pest, and the fragility of Michigan's hemlock resource, HWA represents one of the most serious exotic forest insect pests to have entered the state.

The MI Dept. of Agriculture will likely issue a official news release about HWA later this week.  Personnel from MDA have completed initial surveys and removal of infested trees is pending.  Additional surveys will likely occur later in the fall, when the adelgids begin feeding and the white wool becomes obvious.  Eradication of HWA is the preferred option and may be feasible given the early detection and the apparently localized nature of the infestation.  Those discussions will no doubt continue this fall.

There is lots of HWA information and photos on the web.  My favorite site is http://na.fs.fed.us/fhp/hwa/. I'll keep you updated as new information becomes available.

[SwampDonkey]

I've been wanting to transplant some hemlock on my woodlot but haven't had time this season. I don't see it regenerating very vigourously even near hemlock stands. We usually get an over population of fir which is pretty much as shade tolerant and hemlock. I don't think a deer could even crawl through a fir thicket. Some day I'll get my hemlock, too late this year though.

[Ron Scott]

Coalition to Hold Public Meeting on Hemlock Wooly Adelgid:

On September 16, a coalition of concerned forest scientists, conservation groups, and forestry professionals is sponsoring a public meeting at the West Forest High School (Tionesta, Pennsylvania) to look at the threat of an invasive insect with potential to destroy the Region’s hemlock trees.  This invasive insect has been detected on the outside edge of the Allegheny National Forest (Pennsylvania).  The workshop “Hemlock Wooly Adelgid – What Does it Mean and What Can You Do?” will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (EDT), with an optional field trip following the discussion.  Meeting registration is being coordinated by the Allegheny Hardwood Utilization Group.

[Ron Scott]

The Michigan Department of Agriculture says the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid has been attacking Hemlock trees in Harbor Springs, in Emmet County. A landscaper recently alerted officials about white, cottony masses on hemlocks planted in 2003 at four sites. The trees all came from the same nursery in West Virginia.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 I have seen this in the Hemlocks located in the West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. For the last 5 years the trees are looking, well, mangy, les leafy, pailer. But 2 years ago they seemed to rebound some. I am hopeing they are somehow recovering.

 A few years ago traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway from SC to VA I noticed MANY large, 20"DBH and larger, Hemlocks that were stripped bare, probably dead.

Jon

[SwampDonkey]

They seem to have been hit hard down through there, I've been there also. Was there with a friend who lived in Radford, VA, who worked at V-Tech.

[Sawyerfortyish]

We have been cutting hemlock on one large farm here for 20 yrs. We cut about 30-40 thousand feet per year. We noticed the wooley adelgid on the underside of the trees limbs about 10-12 yrs ago. About 2 yrs ago I would drop a tree and would have to wait for the dust to clear before cutting the limbs. (wonder if there's any health risks in breathing that dust?)We just cut some trees last week in the same woods and they look very healthy. I was very surprised at how the whole forest came back. In talking with the landowner were all still under the opinion that if the tree is big enough to cut for timber cut it before it dies. At the same time we cut good trees we also cut the dead ones first to see if any are still salvagable. It's funny if you cut a hemlock board nail it on a barn it can last a 100 yrs. But leave it stand in the woods with the bark on it and it's rotten in 2 or 3 years.

[Phorester]

What is the hemlock you cut used for? 

I've always heard it was prone to a lot of windshake, where the growth rings seperate, which makes it unusable for about anything.

[SwampDonkey]

They use hemlock in Maine for pulpwood and stud wood. I've sat at a good restaurant near Oakfield and seen trailer load after trailer load go by in tree length form. A lot of it coming from New Brunswick.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Were cutting some pretty good hemlock in around some nasty limestone cliffs and ledges. Some of the ravines I go about a half mile out of my way to get in to. Most all of the hemlock is used for barn siding the windshook stuff goes in the gang saw and made into 1x2 battens. At one time it was estimated that there was 1.5 million ft of hemlock on this farm. I've cut hemlock well over 40" dia and counted 380 growth rings in the butt of one. It took 4 trips with the timberjack to pull that one out. One thing that really blew my mind was when we stopped for lunch one day and sat down by a small hemlock that had been cut out of the skid road it was only about 4" dia but was 86yrs old by the growth rings

[SwampDonkey]

If it's shaded badly it looks like a young seedling and cut one off and count the rings it could be 50 years old, like some balsam fir grows in shade.

[Phorester]

Goes to show that the size of a tree is more dependent on the growing space it has had during it's lifetime instead of its age.

That's the reason for thinnings, TSI, Crop Tree Release, Weedings, etc., etc.  Gives trees more growing space for better health and faster growth.

As I say under my State flag on the left.... can't have a healthy forest.............

[Ron Scott]

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Spreading in Vermont

A Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (HWA) infestation detected in southeastern Vermont last year is larger than first estimated.  According to Barbara Burns, Acting Chief of Forest Resources Protection for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, the HWA infestation first came to the state last year by natural spread.  Since then it has been found in 12 locations in the towns of Vernon and Brattleboro.  Fortunately, a recently completed multi-agency survey of forests beyond the towns’ boundaries, showed no signs of HWA infestation.  A quarantine is in place in Vermont for hemlock seedlings and wood products.  Forest health managers there are looking at options for managing the HWA population.

Chief's Newsletter

[Woolywolf]

I was recently up in the mountains, in the Boone area.  Many huge hemlocks stood dead.  It was sad to see.  Our local newspaper devoted an entire section to the hemlock wooly adelgid a few months ago.  Here are links for several articles: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1226453.html, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1226459.html, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1226645.html.

One article said that researchers are releasing other non-native beetles into the smokies that prey on the adelgid.  It's seems like researchers are fighting fire with fire--not sure that's a good thing.


     

[Dodgy Loner]

You don't have much to worry about from the non-native beetles.  Unfortunately, neither do the HWAs.  There are at least three species of beetles being bred and released by researchers in several different institutions.  They have been studied to a great extent, and their only food source is the HWA.  However, although many thousands of these beetles have been released into the wild, none of them have been relocated after their release.  It will probably require a much larger breeding program than we can currently muster to establish a breeding population of the predatory beetles.  In the end, it will be our only hope.  Individual trees can be treated for HWA infestation with insecticides, as I described here, but the treatment is somewhat expensive, especially for larger trees, and it must be reapplied every 3-4 years.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Since this thread was started more than 2 yrs ago I will say the Hemlock woods that I was working in at that time has come back and looks to be in real good health. I dont know what happened to turn things around from sick and dying to good looking healthy trees.

[Dodgy Loner]

The hemlock has been totally devastated in the northwestern portion of my county, and I have yet to see an uninfested mature hemlock anywhere in the county.  I expect 90% mortality in the county within another 3-4 years, much like what has been seen in Virginia and North Carolina .

[SwampDonkey]

A friend of mine used to work at V-Tech and some of his work involved HWA in Virginia and NC. More involved with SPB though.

I don't see any fir adelgid (balsam woolly aphid) in my lot , but it's in some xmas trees further south. Our government probably won't spend too much on HWA as the species is not highly valued here. In my area it has been over harvested the last couple generations. I doubt if you googled it, that it would show up in any research in NB.

[Roxie]

My Mom lives in Sparta NC, and she was telling me last week that she had a tree guy come and treat her Hemlock.  She thought it was pricey, but she loves the trees. 

[SwampDonkey]

The best hemlock I see in my area grow on lower slopes of sugar maple ridges. Any growing along wetlands are mostly junk. There is a nice bunch down along the drive to town across the creek mixed in with the maples and yellow birch. The only other farms I know of in my local area with them are also hardwood forest, dominated by sugar maple. We had 2 or three here one time, they were also in maple woods.