Common Invasive Tree Insects

Last summer the word on the tree street was all about the Emerald Ash Borer. Sadly, there are pests aplenty for pretty much any tree around though and more often than not, these insects aren’t picky about which trees they infest. Do you know what to look for when it comes to your trees? Here is a list of some of the more common invasive species to watch out for;

COMMON INVASIVE TREE INSECTS

Asian Longhorn Beetle

• • • Asian Longhorn Beetles – prefer to attack maples, but will bore their way into poplars, elms, willows, mulberries and other trees. The larvae kills trees due to their voracious appetite for the tree’s internal tissues, which cuts off the tree’s food supply.
    • Bronze Birch Borer – attacks stressed birch trees by feeding under the bark and effectively girdling the tree. This leads to dieback of upper branches, swollen ridges on the trunk and limbs, and eventual death.

Cedar Leaf Miners

• • • Cedar Leafminers – are not always fatal to cedar trees. If left to feed off the leaves and tunnel through the branches for several years in a row, they can overwhelm the specimen though.
    • Dutch Elm Disease – is a devastating fungal disease to Elm trees. It primarily spreads via the elm bark beetle, which kills the tree by preventing water movement throughout the tree
    • Emerald Ash Borer – has steadily moved north and is now ravaging ash trees in Southwestern Ontario. Ash trees are rapidly overcome as the quickly reproducing borers feed on the tree’s cambium, leaving behind severely compromised and brittle trees that face death unless treated early.

Gypsy Moth

• • • Gypsy Moths – defoliate mass amounts of hardwood trees across North America each year
    • Hemlock Wooly Adelgids – are soft-bodied aphids that feed on Hemlocks with piercing mouths that literally suck the life out of trees
    • Pine Shoot Beetles – originally had a taste for Scots pines, but have recently been found to attack other pine species as well. By boring into the shoots and main trunk of the tree, they cause death in as little as 2 years
    • Tent Caterpillars – infest sugar maples, aspen & oak, but will eat foliage from other hardwood species as well, stripping them bare in short order and devastating weak trees during heavy infestation years

And sadly folks, that is just the tip of the iceberg…