Who would volunteer to save the hemlocks?

[clif]

I confess to not having read all the links so I am less than optimally informed to comment. i don't want to rely on superstition, but i also recognize that not all questions and judgements can be made on a purely scientific basis. anyway, the beetle approach seems preferable. i would urge Mr. Weber, and any citizen, to call their representatives and have them direct the resources of the FS, Dept. of Agriculture, and University researchers to focus on the beetle breeding program.... sorry i can't spend more time looking into this myself, i plan on trying to contact researchers here locally...

thanks all-

Excerpted from one of TRADMIKE's links:

Relative Effectiveness

Adults and larvae of S. tsugae are highly mobile and voraciously feed on all life stages of A. tsugae. During its development, each beetle larva consumes about 500 adelgid eggs or from 50 to 100 adelgid nymphs, depending upon the size of prey attacked. Adults can live for more than one year and may consume about 50 adelgid nymphs each week during times of peak feeding activity. Each female beetle lays nearly 300 eggs in her lifetime.

Sasajiscymnus tsugae is an important predator of A. tsugae in Japan, killing 86 to 99% of the adelgids at the 24 sites were it was studied. Experiments conducted at four sites in Connecticut and one site in Virginia from 1995 through 1997 revealed that releasing relatively few adult beetles (2,400-3,600) into an infested hemlock forest reduced adelgid densities by 47-88% on release trees in only 5 months. In the field, S. tsugae mated, reproduced, and dispersed from release trees and became established in the surrounding hemlock forest. Field recoveries in Connecticut showed that S. tsugae overwintered successfully from 1996-2005 under a wide variety of climatic conditions. Adults and larvae were recovered at 65% of Connecticut release sites one to six years after the initial release. Severe winters in the northeast in 2003, 2004, and 2009 have impacted survival of hemlock woolly adelgid, keeping Connecticut forest populations of this pest patchy and low and generally non-damaging. While S. tsugae has been difficult to recover at ground level using lower crown beat sampling, bucket truck sampling has shown that adults and larvae could be found between 5-20m in the upper canopy in Connecticut and New Jersey, indicating that adults are highly mobile and disperse upwards. Environmental conditions of cool, wet summers and cold winters have aided hemlock recovery in Connecticut. Recovery in adelgid-infested stands has been recorded statewide in Connecticut since 2005, while hemlock mortality has been minimal since 2002. More recently, in 2008 and 2009, adults and larvae of S. tsugae were recovered during lower canopy beat sampling in 22% of release sites in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Recoveries were made in 21% of the sites sampled, with most beetles recovered from older release sites. These studies suggest that S. tsugae releases have been successful and that the beetle has excellent potential for further biological control of A. tsugae.

[matthewcroberts]

Clif,
First, IANAE (I am not an Entomologist), however, I do work for a pretty world-famous one, and we happened to have a meeting this morning, and so I brought this up.

While the thought of introducing a new insect into an ecosystem to combat a problematic invasive specie is certainly appealing, remember that this is how the Asian Beetle arrived, which is now considered a pest, and is similar reasoning to that which brought kudzu to the US. For these reasons, it is neither obviously simpler nor safer to use a predator insect to control A. tsugae. Further, as these are still topics of relatively early stage research (as far as the systemic effects) if we wait until we are relatively confident that A. tsugae presents no greater harm than imidicloprid, then we are likely to have very few Hemlocks alive to treat with either method.

Thanks for working on this all. Put my name down on the list of helpers.

Matt.

(edited to add "obviously" and replace "trees" with "Hemlocks")

[TradMike]

Sasajiscymnus tsugae, aka Sassie, has been approved for release in the eastern United States after extensive USDA testing and quarantine in Connecticut … and is currently available for purchase by private citizens.

They have had mixed results sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
http://savinghemlocks.org/wp-content/up ... tsugae.pdf
http://savinghemlocks.org/wp-content/up ... Work-1.pdf
http://savinghemlocks.org/hwabio-control/

Where to buy the beetle - they are expensive.
http://www.tree-savers.com/

[Corona]

If not us then who?

Do some searching for nature/conservationist groups and expand beyond the climbing community. Tree hugging is in vogue these days...
http://naturepreserves.ky.gov/news/Pres ... mlocks.pdf, https://www.facebook.com/kyhemlocks, http://www.knlt.org/
"Landowners who want information about the hemlock woolly adelgid or help treating trees may call Alice Mandt or Jody Thompson at (502) 564-4496, or email alice.mandt@ky.gov."
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/04/27/3215 ... -urge.html

^ Great idea! The more support and expertise, the better.

Shannon, thoughts on having a public planning meeting?

[clif]

hey

matthewcroberts. thanks for the response. i'm working too much, not climbing enough or really at all and am too old to do much about anything except bitch,
so, thanks for the invitation. what I mean to say is don't take anything i'm about to write personally or that seriously.

first of all, world famous entomyologist is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, pretty or not. however, IANAE.
I bet not 1 in 100 americans would know who eo Wilson is.

there are so many invasive species I think it is well past time to get over the antiquated notion. mimosa trees, japanese beetles (your Asian?), kudzu-are these really problems? carp in the great lakes? pythons in the everglades? man in general? maybe.

anything in your response that your boss had a hand in reflects more about the politics of academic research than scientific reasoning. why not cite collateral effects research or related/parallel/somewhat equivalent studies instead of 'neither obviously simpler or safer' - a remarkably limited and vague standard.

and only a researcher would say the nearly 25 years of study is early stage. ask your boss what the one conclusion that all research studies have agreed upon-

more research is needed.

[Corona]

Clif, it's not abstract politics. All the untreated hemlocks will die. Period. The question is whether it's worth it to us to save the ones we can for our enjoyment and for the benefit of the local ecosystem.

So, I spoke with the head of Animal and Plant Health Protection Services in Kentucky about our best long-term treatment options, and he put me in touch with Joe Collins at UK. Joe has been doing research on hemlock wooly adelgid's spread and control in eastern Kentucky. He had this to say about biological controls, trunk injections, and soil drenches:

"Unlike emerald ash borer, hemlock wooly adelgid is a long persisting problem that only gets worse over time. However, unlike EAB where trees need to be treated every year, with HWA the treatment can last for 4-7 years so treating a tree every year is not necessary. HWA causes a slow death of the tree and it can take up to 10-12 years for a tree to die from an infestation.

I recommend using a soil drench unless the trees are located near a stream. From what I have been told, trunk injections do not work very well as the tree sap interferes with the uptake. We have done some work with biological control in southeastern KY but so far the results have not been very promising.

I would recommend that you contact Alice Mandt of the KY Division of Forestry. She is the HWA coordinator and you can contact her at 502-564-4496 or alice.mandt@ky.gov Alice has coordinated a lot of treatments for hwa and would be the best contact for getting treatment questions answered.

Joe Collins
Sr. Nursery Inspector
Office of the State Entomologist
Dept. of Entomology
Lexington, KY 40546-0091
(859) 218-3341
http://www.KyStateEnt.org

[clif]

i'd say you make a pretty good argument for pursuing the beetle approach

[Rotarypwr345704]

Clif, it's not abstract politics. All the untreated hemlocks will die. Period.

And all TREATED hemlocks will die. Period.

BECAUSE EVERYTHING DIES!!!!!!!!

[TradMike]

BECAUSE EVERYTHING DIES!!!!!!!!

Just for you Rotarypwr
http://youtu.be/WdEoputkE98

[Rotarypwr345704]

BECAUSE EVERYTHING DIES!!!!!!!!

Just for you Rotarypwr
http://youtu.be/WdEoputkE98

I'm glad someone got the reference