Latest Adelgidae Stories

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Due to the introduction of exotic pests and pathogens, tree species are being eliminated one by one from forest ecosystems. In some cases, scientists can observe immediately how their loss affects the environment, whereas in other cases, creative puzzle solving and analysis reveal unexpected repercussions. In the case of the loss of the hemlock tree, University of Illinois landscape and ecosystem ecologist...

Thousands of broken trees line the banks of the Chattooga River. The dead gray stabs were once evergreen monsters offering shade to trout and picturesque views to visitors. These Eastern hemlocks are dying rapidly, and University of Georgia researchers are working to save them. One tiny insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid, is to blame. The Asian insect first appeared in the eastern U.S. in Richmond, Va., in the 1950s. In 2003, it crossed the river from South Carolina and started feeding on...

An analysis of two decades of data collected by the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest and Inventory Analysis (FIA) program shows that the live volume of hemlocks in the eastern United States is increasing despite infestations of hemlock woolly adelgidthat have decimated local populations. The information comes from an e-Science Update co-authored by scientists from two U.S. Forest Service research stations, the Northern Research Station (NRS) and the Southern Research Station (SRS), and...

A recent analysis of two decades of USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data shows the live volume of hemlocks in the eastern United States still increasing despite spreading infestations of hemlock woolly adelgid. FIA scientists from the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) and Northern Research Station (NRS) published the information as an SRS e-Science Update in early August. The FIA researchers conducted the analysis for this update on 20 years of data...

By Joshua E. Brown, University of VermontHemlock is the third most common tree species in Vermont. But it soon may drop off the list, going the way of the now-vanished chestnut and elm. An invasive pest, hemlock woolly adelgid, has been marching and munching its way north along the Appalachians "” killing pretty much every hemlock it can sink its sap-sucking mouthparts into. The adelgid recently arrived in southern Vermont.So far, only extreme cold stops the hemlock woolly adelgid. But the...

New hemlock hybrids that are tolerant to the invasive insect known as hemlock woolly adelgid have been created by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.Geneticist Richard Olsen and horticulturist Sue Bentz of USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) teamed up with Forest Service entomologist Mike Montgomery to breed and select these tolerant hybrids. Olsen and Bentz work in the U.S. National Arboretum's Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit in Beltsville, Md. The arboretum is...

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania's ongoing efforts to control destructive forest pests and invasive vegetation in state forests and parks received an infusion of needed funds - and a strong vote of confidence -- through the recent approval of more than $350,000 in federal grants, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced today. Five USDA Forest Service grants totaling $353,500 are earmarked for DCNR's bureaus of forestry and state parks...

New research by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists and partners suggests the hemlock woolly adelgid is killing hemlock trees faster than expected in the southern Appalachians and rapidly altering the carbon cycle of these forests. SRS researchers and cooperators from the University of Georgia published the findings in the most recent issue of the journal Ecosystems."The study marks the first time that scientists have tracked the short-term effects hemlock...

By GREG BLUESTEIN ATHENS, Ga. - Like a bloodsucking mosquito, the hemlock woolly adelgid plunges its needle-like mouth deep into the branches of hemlock trees and slowly sucks out the nutrients. The pest's telltale sign is the touch of frost-like wool it produces near tree needles, but the real signal of its wrath comes when the evergreen trees die about a decade later. Since the adelgid migrated from Asia to Virginia in the 1950s, it's at once fascinated and frustrated forest researchers who...

By SAMIRA JAFARI PINEVILLE, Ky. - It's going to take a lot of money to combat a tiny bug that's attacking eastern Kentucky's hemlock trees, forestry officials warned Thursday. The exotic insect, called the hemlock woolly adelgid, has been detected in only two Kentucky state parks, but the minuscule aphid-like insect has already destroyed hemlock trees throughout Appalachia. The only thing standing in the way of safeguarding Kentucky hemlocks is the lack of funding, said Tim McClure, a state...