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Ashland, MA 01721
Ashland, MA 01721
One of an arborists’ main duties is diagnosing and treating insect problems in the landscape. Trees and shrubs act as the food for many different insects some of which reduce the vigor and health of the plant. Sometimes the insect pest is nothing more than a nuisance, but in other situations, the life of the […]
Tree insect pests are capable of impacting the health and longevity of mature trees. This may be accomplished by reducing photosynthetic capacity, draining carbohydrate reserves, reducing water and photosynthate movement within trees, opening up wounds for disease pathogen invasion and/or direct inoculation of trees with pathogens, to mention a few. Whether a particular insect will […]
Emerald ash borer (EAB), an insect that causes decline and death of ash trees, has now been found in western Massachusetts. This is an introduced, non-native, insect pest that was first identified as causing death of ash trees in the US in 2002. It is thought to have been intoduced from Asia. Since being discovered […]
Hemock woolly adelgid has captured much of the press in recent years regarding our eastern hemlocks. There has, however, been a noticeable increase in the presence of another insect pest of hemlocks in the last few years. Elongate hemlock scale, an armored or hard scale, is being found more frequently here in parts of the […]
Two-lined chestnut borer adults are now active. The adult stage of this insect is a beetle that prefers to attack stressed or declining oaks and beech trees. The insect gets its name from the fact it was a primary pest of the American chestnut tree and has 2 thin lines on its back. The […]
One of the more common scale insect pests seen in landscapes here in the Notheast is cottony taxus (cottony camelia) scale. This insect is easiliy recognized due to the cottony white appearance of egg-laying, adult females. The adult females produce a long (<1/2”), narrow band of a cottony looking substance (egg sac) that houses and […]
A new insect pest to be watchful for on your property is viburnum leaf beetle. The insect, which is native to Europe, was found in the mid 20th century in Canada and has now spread into Massachusetts and other northeastern states. Damage to plants consists of leaf feeding both in the larval and adults […]
The month of May is when two of our more common ambrosia beetles here in the Northeast start to become noticeable in landscapes. Ambrosia beetles are a group of small beetles that attack trees by boring into tree wood producing tunnels (galleries) that are used for rearing of young. Adult beetles carry a fungus that […]
The up and down temperatures this spring affected winter moth development and feeding. Abnormally warm temperatures early in the season brought on premature winter moth egg hatch. Many of the trees that the insect feeds on had yet to have buds swollen enough to allow entry into them for feeding. This was followed by colder […]
This spring weather has resulted in some abnormal activity in landscapes. We are currently about 2-3 weeks ahead of where things normally are phenologically. Typically the second week of May is peak bloom time here in the Boston area. We are on pace for that to occur the 3rd or 4thweek of April. What are the […]
