- Judy is the Vermont state entomologist
with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets,
served as staff with FEMC,
and worked with USDA APHIS Plant Protection
and Quarantine Program.
Today, she is presenting updates
on federal pest deregulation
and status of pests of regional concern.
- Okay. Thank you so much.
Okay, so my name's Judy Rosovsky,
as Nancy kindly said,
and I will be talking to you today
to update you on the federal pest deregulations
and status of pests of regional concern.
One of the pests that was recently deregulated
was deregulated the beginning of 2021,
was the Emerald Ash Borer,
and Emerald Ash Borer is a tree killing pest,
so it has the potential
to cause a great deal of forest disruption.
In the regulatory world,
the federal government no longer has its quarantine
on Emerald Ash Borer.
Any compliance agreements that were made
with the federal government no longer apply.
It's incumbent on states now
to certify kilns that treat firewood,
so you can't use USDA language on stickers.
And for those businesses concerned about this,
third party certification is under consideration
so it wouldn't necessarily be state personnel
that were doing kiln certifications.
You might be able to hire someone.
One of the reasons
that the feds decided to deregulate Emerald Ash Borer
was they wanted to concentrate more of their efforts
on bio-controlled releases.
Their goal is to release the stingless, tiny wasps
that are parasitoids of Emerald Ash Borer
in every county that's infested with Emerald Ash Borer,
but I've heard from Josh Hallman,
from Forests, Parks, and Recreation,
who's the lead person
in these bio-control efforts in Vermont,
that due to some issues
they may only be doing releases in 30 states.
So I'm not quite sure what the 2022 release status will be,
but we do have two release sites
and you can see John Jericho,
from Forests, Parks, and Recreation,
with an oobinator;
that's the device used to release oobius,
the egg parasitoid.
And this is Tetrastichus,
another larval parasitoid
that we released in South Hero.
Forests, Parks, and Recreation
plays a large role in EAB
and one of their many contributions
is to have created this map
that shows the severity of the infestations
in addition to their location.
So you can find this map at VTinvasives.org.
So,
Light Brown Apple Moth is a agricultural pest,
but you'll note it has 2000 hosts that it can attack,
so kind of a problem.
It's so far been confined to California,
but it was deregulated,
or it's deregulation will go into effect tomorrow, actually,
despite the objections of a number of states.
And we had some discussions with the USDA about that,
so just want to put this one on your radar.
Another pest that's been deregulated is a Pine Shoot Beetle.
Vermont actually had a quarantine for that insect,
but we never really enforced it
because it turned out it was so widespread.
It was kind of meaningless to try to regulate it
to curtail its movement.
And then another agricultural pest
is Chrysanthemum White Rust,
which turns out not to really get dispersed into the wild,
so it's still regulated,
but it's going to be deregulated soon.
And this is just an image of the Pine Shoot Beetle.
Another insect that's not deregulated yet
is on the list to be deregulated,
is a Velvet Longhorn Beetle
and it moves on furniture and wood packing material.
Vermont and Maine objected to its impending deregulation
because it's not quite clear
if it only attacks dead and dying tissue,
or if it attacks live tissue,
and it can go after fruit trees
and other, you know, trees of significance,
like maple and walnut.
It's present in high numbers
or, you know, more than one in about six states,
and then it's been found in a number of other states.
There was a find in New Hampshire
and Vermont got some in infested furniture from Minnesota
in 2016.
These are all eradicated,
so these are just called regulatory incidents.
It's not established in Vermont,
but it's certainly a threat,
and this is a second or third most intercepted
serabised at the border.
So something to keep in mind.
Asian Longhorn Beetle
is another tree killer,
not quite as bad as Emerald Ash Borer,
but not something that Vermont wants to have.
This is a tree climber in Massachusetts.
He's looking for these exit holes,
dime-shaped exit holes,
or dime-sized exit holes,
and the over position holes,
and a distinct looking beetle.
If you see these, please report it to VTinvasives.org.
We do not have it in Vermont that we know of,
but it is nearby in Massachusetts,
in New York.
This shows the acreage of infested areas
in the four states that have it.
And I just want to draw your attention to Ohio
where they've removed a considerable number of hosts
in an effort to eradicate the insect from that state.
It is an insect that is eradicable
because it has been removed from other areas.
I'm sorry, I'm having problems with my notifications.
Oops, wait back. There we go.
So it has been eradicated from Illinois,
Chicago, basically,
and New Jersey, and Toronto.
These are maps to show you the regulated areas nearest us,
which is central Massachusetts,
and also in the area near New York City.
There are 12 species of trees
that are not allowed to be removed from these areas.
So, and also Massachusetts doesn't allow,
you know, firewood to be brought into campgrounds.
I think you have to buy it on site.
Another tree pest that we have
that's not really a tree killer,
although this can be debated,
but Lymantria dispar dispar
formerly known as the Gypsy Moth.
This is an adult female,
adult male,
part of an egg mass,
and these are some exposed eggs,
and these are parasitoid pupa it looks like.
This is defoliation off of I-89 from this spring.
So these insects were brought to this country,
to Medford, Massachusetts in about 1870
and their first outbreak was about 1890.
So they'd been present in New England
for over a hundred years
and we still have plenty of oak trees,
so that's why I feel like they're not a real threat.
On the other hand, they are a stressor
and with the number of droughts that we've had,
so droughts combined with defoliation,
is not a good thing for the trees
in those susceptible areas.
So the question is,
what's gonna happen in the spring of 2022,
and has the natural enemy population of the LDDs
increased to a level
where it will be able to control next year's population,
or will there be another defoliation event?
This is what the caterpillars look like
when they've been killed by NPV,
the Nuclear Polyhedrosis virus.
This is what caterpillars look like
when they'd been killed by Entomophaga maimaiga,
the fungus that's actually prevented Gypsy Moth outbreaks
from happening in Vermont for the last 30 years.
I should've said LDD.
Notice that their heads are down
and you can see they're pro legs sticking out.
And this is an egg parasitite,
a parasitoid, Ooencyrtus kuvanae.
They were very abundant this fall.
They are small
and they can't reach all the way through the egg masses
to get all the eggs,
but they can contribute to the population decline.
So we're gonna have to make a decision next year
before we know if the natural enemy population
is gonna control these or not,
which is unfortunate.
So, Spotted Lanternfly,
again, not a tree killer.
It does have a large number of host species,
maybe 70.
It doesn't apparently always stay in the same area
long enough to do that much damage to trees,
but there's some crops that it goes after,
particularly grapes.
It's also a public nuisance
and it can harm small, young trees
because of their piercing, sucking mouth parts.
So, the blue areas indicate counties that are infested
and the red or purple dots show where it's been found,
but has not established populations yet.
So these are what the egg masses,
they're hard to see,
this is what they look like.
They look like a blotch of mud.
These are the first through third instar nymphs.
This is a fourth instar,
and then adults with a wing folded
and the wings open where they're so brightly colored.
These are where we found them in Vermont.
Again, this is not established in Vermont.
We only had one live incident last year
and all three adults are dead,
but that put us on the map for good or bad.
So we're trying to,
you know, speed up our outreach campaign
to get people more aware of these,
and if you see 'em,
please report 'em to VTinvasives.org.
Another problem that we're looking at,
and it's forest impact isn't clear
but it will most assuredly have some effect,
are these jumping worms
that are mostly in the genus Amynthas.
They can change soil PH and texture,
and possibly the moisture regime.
There are no legal chemical treatments for it.
You can kill them by picking them up
and putting them in soapy water for a couple of hours
to drown them
or putting them in plastic bags,
double bagged, and put them in the sun to roast them.
So we're working on finding ways
that we can legally kill them,
but a soil drench is problematic.
You don't want to kill everything in the soil.
And this is a map I took off of from
I Naturalist records
of where this worm has been found,
so fairly widespread at the moment.
Another way we look for insects
is through the trapping program that Emily Inoue runs
for Agency of Ag.
This year, these looked for past federal and state concerns
that we found Anisandrus maiche,
Tomicus piniperda,
which is a Pine Shoot Beetle that we knew we had,
and Sirex noctilio,
that we also knew we had
but not necessarily from Orange County,
and some of these insects have been found in other states,
particularly Anisandrus,
which I understand is abundant
in the Southeastern portion of the US.
I'm not quite clear how much of a problem it causes,
but it's something that,
you know, we found it more than once.
There's this other Ambrosia beetle,
so the Anisandrus is an Ambrosia beetle.
Heteroborips seriatus is too.
Trichoferus, that's the Velvet Longhorn Beetle.
It keeps showing up.
And then this grape borer.
So these are things, you know,
we just want to know where they are,
what they're doing.
Other pests, the Box Tree Moth
appears to be coming across the river from Canada
all on its own,
in addition to being transported through nursery stock.
The Brown Tail Moth in Maine
has urticating hairs that irritate lungs and skin.
And Beech Leaf Disease is on the march.
I was told that in Connecticut
it was found one year in one county
and the next year it was in all the counties.
So, the cumulative effect
of all these stressors on trees is unknown,
but it's unlikely to be positive.
And between the droughts
that we've been seeing with climate change
and the increased global trade
that's increased the number of insect pests
coming to this country,
we really need to do all we can
to keep our forests healthy and resilient.
So, thank you. I'll stop now.
Okay. Well, you have my contact information on this slide,
so, whoops.
- [Nancy] Okay. We have one in the chat box.
Canuse, from Aaron Weig,
can you say which town in Orange County Sirex was detected?
- I could probably tell you privately.
I actually don't know off the top of my head,
but I can find that out,
so if you want to send me an email
to Judy.Rosovsky@vermont.gov,
I can see if I can dig that up for you.
- [Nancy] I have a question, Judy, I was curious,
are there like, preventative measures
that people can be taking to prevent the,
you know, like you said,
the Asian Longhorn Beetle is not in Vermont,
but it's close by.
Are there things that people should be aware of
that could help stop the spread?
- Finding it as soon as it gets here would be great,
so if people notice those signs and symptoms
over position sites,
and the exit holes,
and tell, you know, a forester,
me,
anybody who's involved with forest protection about it,
the sooner we find it,
the easier it is to eliminate.
So, thank you. That was a great question.
And also don't move firewood
because that's how we transport Asian Longhorn Beetle.
- [Nancy] Yeah. I don't know
if can you see the chat box?
Allison also said use local firewood.
- Oh, right. Yep.
Local firewood is good.
- [Nancy] Yeah.
- Thank you.
Well, thanks.
Thanks everybody for coming.