Emerald Ash Borer Information for Homeowners
– Website provides most pertinent information on Emerald Ash Borer for homeowners and answers the most common questions about the insect and management options
Site Update
New webinars added to Resources: Outreach Products page
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Community Plan Development presentation now available on HWA page
2011 Conference presentations now available
2012 Tennessee Cooperative Gypsy Moth Program Report
- This report, added to the Gypsy Moth pest page, details eradication and trapping activities conducted in 2012, and also lists planned activities for 2013.
News
Smokies add 2 new beetles, canopy cages in figth against hemlock adelgid
(May 20, 2013) - At the eastern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, not far from Cosby, Tenn., are three 25-foot-tall hemlock trees enveloped in nylon that appear out of nowhere like circus tents in the middle of the forest. They’re called canopy cages. Six years ago the University of Tennessee and the U.S. Forest Service tested them at Blackberry Farm in Blount County, and now they’re being employed in the Smokies to help control the hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny, nonnative insect pest that has been killing the park’s hemlocks for more than a decade. In addition to battling the infestation with soap sprays and soil-injected pesticides, the park has been releasing two species of “predator” beetles that prey on the hemlock woolly adelgid. To enhance its biological control program, the park recently added two more species of predator beetles to the mix.
Increase in bagworms threatens trees, foliage
(Apr. 19, 2013) - Years of drought conditions has caused an increase in bagworms, an insect that threatens the life of trees and foliage. At the Cedars of Lebanon State Park, it is pretty easy to find evidence of bagworms. The branches of the cedar trees are covered with bagworms, which eat the foliage and use the leaves to make their bags. "We have been getting a lot of calls about bagworms," said assistant state forester David Arnold. He says one of the main reasons for seeing an increase of bagworms in the state park is because of previous years of drought conditions.
Protecting Tennessee Trees
(March 2013) - Forests are complex ecosystems. And threats from invasive pests, drought and disease are to be expected, though not accepted without a fight. The Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry (TDF) is at the forefront of the effort to protect the health of the state’s rural and urban forests.
Area walnut trees in danger
(Jan. 9, 2013) - Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD) has been confirmed in Haywood County in a portion of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park according to the North Carolina Forest Service (NCFS). "The disease was found by researchers during surveys of the Park's walnuts," NCFS information states. "This is the first detection of TCD in North Carolina."
Knoxville's urban forester plans tree tour in city neighborhoods
(Dec. 11, 2012) - Kasey Krause recently became Knoxville's first-ever urban forester. One of Krause's responsibilities will be protecting the city's trees from threats like the emerald ash borer. He's already got his eye on a new infestation attacking walnut trees in East Tennessee. "That's a thousand cankers disease," said Krause. "That is in the area, it's in Knoxville and it is a concern as well very much like emerald ash borer."
Krause says it's important if you have a problem with your tree, whether its a hanging limb or a possible infestation to notify the city.
Walnut Tree Quarantine in Jefferson County Due to Thousand Cankers Disease
(Dec. 10, 2012) - The Tennessee Department of Agriculture today announced the discovery of a walnut tree killing disease, Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD), in Jefferson County. The county is now under quarantine. Hamblen County is now considered a buffer regulated county because it is adjacent to a quarantined county. Rhea County is also being placed in the buffer regulated category because Walnut Twig Beetles have been caught in the county but no TCD fungus has been found.
Biological Control Released At Martha Sundquist State Forest To Protect Hemlocks
(Dec. 5, 2012) - Predatory beetles that feed on hemlock woolly adelgids (HWA), an invasive pest killing swaths of hemlock trees from eastern Tennessee to the Cumberland Mountains, were released Tuesday at Martha Sundquist State Forest in Cocke County. The release was an effort by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry (TDF) to protect young eastern hemlock seedlings from the invasive exotic pest, which is responsible for killing many, if not most, of the mature hemlocks in the state forest.
Insect invasion: Tree-killing beetle discovered in Greenbrier area of Smokies
(Dec. 3, 2012) - Emerald ash borer creeps deeper into park. A few weeks ago, Glenn Taylor was hiking on his day off in the Greenbrier area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when he noticed wood chips scattered along the trail. A biologist for the Smokies, Taylor suspected the worst. For years the park had been on the lookout for the arrival of the emerald ash borer, a tiny green beetle that feeds exclusively on ash trees and is believed to have been accidentally introduced to the Detroit area in 2002 on packing material from Asia. The park first confirmed the emerald ash borer's arrival last summer at frontcountry sites near two park entrances. Taylor, on the other hand, was hiking in the backcountry next to a stream. He came across the first pile of chips beneath ash trees less than a mile from the trailhead. A little farther, he found more chips littering the ground in quarter-size chunks.
Emerald ash borer confirmed in the backcountry of the Smokies
(Nov. 21, 2012) -
Park resource managers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have confirmed the presence of the emerald ash borer in the backcountry of the park for the first time.
