These invasive pests are taking a harsh toll on trees in Massachusetts, which is home to 57 types of invasive pests. This is more than any other state except New York and Pennsylvania. The list of invasive insects in Massachusetts include the winter moths who have devastated forests in the eastern part of our state; oak crypt gall wasps which kill black oaks especially along our southern border and islands; the hemlock wooly adelgid; the emerald ash borer which was seen in the Berkshires in Dalton in 2012; and the Asian long-horned beetle which seems to be eating its way through red maples in the central part of our state at the cost of more than $150 million dollars for the removal of 34,000 trees. The list continues with other pathogens including butternut canker, dogwood anthracnose, Dutch elm disease, and beech bark disease.

Frank Lowenstein, deputy director of New England Forest Foundation, a conservation group in Littleton wants the United States to do more to protect our forests. “Trees are vital to our air quality, water quality, and the stability of our climate. They’re the foundation of life in New England.” He states. The Ecological Applications study estimates that 63 percent of US forest land (825 million acres) is at risk of increased damage from existing pests. An example of this type of devastation has been the virtual elimination of the American chestnut.

Solutions? One suggestion is the need to eliminate the use of wood packing materials (pallets, spools) which harbor and bring in more pests to our country and throughout our country every year. Alternatives would include plywood, strand lumber and other non-solid-wood packaging. A ban on all live plant material into the country has also be suggested. A simple example of disease importation on live plant material from an overseas country was the August blight that destroyed our Impatiens (Impatiens balsamina) a few years ago. The Asian long horned beetle is one of the pests that was brought into our country through wood packing material. “We need to act now to strengthen prevention if we are going to protect billion of valuable trees,” added Gary Lovett, a forest ecologist at the Carey Institute of Ecosystems Studies and one of the lead authors of the study from the Ecological Applications journal.

Here is a review of some of the new invasive insects to our forests, but first a new-comer, right in our own back yard. We don’t yet know the extent of damage of this new invader may have on our native bees.

Hemlock woolly adelgid, or HWA, is member of the Sternorrhyncha suborder of the Order Hemiptera and native to East Asia. It is a small aphid-like insect that feeds by sucking sap from eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) and spruce trees in the Eastern United States. The hemlock woolly adelgid develops and reproduces on all species of hemlock, but only eastern and Carolina hemlock are vulnerable when attacked. Other hemlock stressors, including drought, poor site conditions, and insect and disease pests such as elongate hemlock scale (Fiorinia externa), hemlock looper (Lambdina fiscellaria fiscellaria), spruce spider mite (Oligonychus ununguis), hemlock borer (Melanophila fulvogutta), root rot disease (Armillaria mellea), and needlerust (Melampsora parlowii), accelerate the rate and extent of hemlock mortality. Invasion by HWA is usually the final blow.