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Ohio
Dept. of Natural Resoures
Officials
Discover Hemlock Pest in the Hocking Hills Region
COLUMBUS,
OH – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and
the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) today announced the discovery
of a hemlock-killing
pest in the Hocking Hills region. Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) is a
small,
aphid-like insect native to Asia that threatens the health and
sustainability
of eastern hemlock and Carolina hemlock in the eastern United States.
A
relatively small infestation was recently discovered at Cantwell
Cliffs in Hocking Hills State Park as part of a joint ODNR and ODA
forest
health survey program. An extensive survey of the immediate surrounding
area
has been conducted, and no additional trees have been found.
“Hemlock
trees are abundant in Hocking County, and we have been
checking this region for HWA for years,” said Robert Boyles, chief of
the ODNR
Division of Forestry. “Since the HWA was found early and was affecting
a
relatively small area, there are more options available to limit its
damage and
spread.”
Plans
for dealing with this pest are currently being formulated,
but multiple chemical and non-chemical treatment options are being
explored.
These include treatments such as foliar sprays of horticultural oils or
insecticidal soaps, systemic insecticides and biological control. After
further
survey of the areas surrounding the site of infestation, state and
federal
officials will determine an appropriate course of action.
ODA
will expand its hemlock quarantine to include Hocking County.
Ohio regulations that cover the transportation of hemlock materials
restrict
any hemlock plant material from counties known to be infested from
entering
non-infested counties in Ohio. The ODA Plant Pest Control Program urges
citizens to use caution when transporting wood materials to help
protect
against the artificial spread of insect pests.
HWA
was first reported in the eastern United States in 1951 near
Richmond, Va. By 2005, it was established in portions of 16 states from
Maine
to Georgia, where infestations covered about half of the range of
hemlock. It
was first reported in natural stands of hemlock in Ohio in January 2012
in
Meigs County.
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