(875 words)
Woolly Days ahead for the Hemlock Tree
-Angela Cannon-Crothers I like bugs, ask anyone. I am awed by the mechanics of their life cycles, the biodiversity of the entire Order of Insecta, the magical beauty of so many of their kind. But there are a few that strike more than a few heebe-geebes -- some are downright frightening. Take the tiny hemlock wooly adelgid (ah-del-jid) for instance: a needle sucking scale insect of miniscule proportions that reproduces asexually (no male required) at a rate of thousands per year. This aphid-like insect, originally from Japan, has no predators in this part of North America and its only table fare is the Eastern hemlock tree. In the Shenandoah National Park the prolific HWA has already killed …show more content…
The hemlock woolly adelgid has been found in our area – in Conklin’s Gully in Hi Tor Wildlife Management Area, Clarks Gully, Walton Point on Canandaigua Lake, Honeoye Lake hillsides, and Keuka Lake State Park. It’s here. But there are some things we can do if we want to keep the species in check, if we want to save hemlock trees and subsequently, our gullies and lakes. I do not promote the use of insecticides and other chemical poisons, ask anyone who knows me. But the HWA scares me enough that I am willing to rethink a few of my beliefs, at least until the little woolly devil’s biological controls can be introduced – which is coming – it’s just that by the time we get them here it might be too late if we don’t act quickly.
In a meeting sponsored by the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Association (CLWA) held at the Naples Village Hall on December 5th, analyst, Steve Lewandowski, from the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Alliance, Cornell University entomologist, Mark Whitmore, Edith Davy from the Ontario County Soil & Water Conservation Service, Jim Engel from White Oak Nursery and a local resident, Lynn Thurston, turned HWA activist with the newly formed Walton Point Neighborhood Association, gave an informative talk on what we can do to save our hemlock trees from
Woolly Days ahead for the Hemlock Tree
-Angela Cannon-Crothers I like bugs, ask anyone. I am awed by the mechanics of their life cycles, the biodiversity of the entire Order of Insecta, the magical beauty of so many of their kind. But there are a few that strike more than a few heebe-geebes -- some are downright frightening. Take the tiny hemlock wooly adelgid (ah-del-jid) for instance: a needle sucking scale insect of miniscule proportions that reproduces asexually (no male required) at a rate of thousands per year. This aphid-like insect, originally from Japan, has no predators in this part of North America and its only table fare is the Eastern hemlock tree. In the Shenandoah National Park the prolific HWA has already killed …show more content…
The hemlock woolly adelgid has been found in our area – in Conklin’s Gully in Hi Tor Wildlife Management Area, Clarks Gully, Walton Point on Canandaigua Lake, Honeoye Lake hillsides, and Keuka Lake State Park. It’s here. But there are some things we can do if we want to keep the species in check, if we want to save hemlock trees and subsequently, our gullies and lakes. I do not promote the use of insecticides and other chemical poisons, ask anyone who knows me. But the HWA scares me enough that I am willing to rethink a few of my beliefs, at least until the little woolly devil’s biological controls can be introduced – which is coming – it’s just that by the time we get them here it might be too late if we don’t act quickly.
In a meeting sponsored by the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Association (CLWA) held at the Naples Village Hall on December 5th, analyst, Steve Lewandowski, from the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Alliance, Cornell University entomologist, Mark Whitmore, Edith Davy from the Ontario County Soil & Water Conservation Service, Jim Engel from White Oak Nursery and a local resident, Lynn Thurston, turned HWA activist with the newly formed Walton Point Neighborhood Association, gave an informative talk on what we can do to save our hemlock trees from