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NC State Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

oak

Online Seminar: Update on Oaks-Trees in Transition, August 17

August 3, 2023

Gardening in the Mountains presents:
Update on Oaks – Trees in Transition

Thursday, August 17, 2023
10 – 11:00 a.m.

Virtual attendance via Zoom video and audio internet connection

Presenter: Dr. Ryan Blaedow, Forest Health Protection, USDA Forest Service

Oaks, the beloved trees of our forests and landscapes! How vital they are in their support to the many life forms in our gardens and yet they struggle with the ever changing conditions and urbanization of the environments in which they live. 

 Join us to learn from plant pathologist and oak decline expert Ryan Blaedow about the health and status of oaks in western North Carolina.

Registration: The talk is free but registration is required. Please click on the link below to register. If you encounter problems registering or if you have questions, call 828-255-5522.

Register on Eventbrite

Zoom seminar access: After registration, you will receive an email with instructions and a link to join this online live broadcast via Zoom. The ability to access Zoom through a computer, tablet or smartphone with a reliable internet connection is necessary to attend.

 

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Categories Lectures & Seminars Tags oak, red oaks, trees, white oaks

Orange-striped Oak Worm

August 18, 2015

 

Orange-striped Oak Worm
Orange-striped Oak Worm

Just when you think you’ve had enough with pests munching on your landscape …along comes one more!

I’m always surprised in August when I see the first Orange-striped Oak Worm. In my mind, they have become harbingers of cooler weather ahead.

Orange-striped Oak Worms have one generation per year. Adults (moths) emerge and lay clusters of yellow eggs on the bottom of oak leaves. Young caterpillars are yellow and feed gregariously, skeletonizing leaves, leaving most fine veins intact. As they grow, larvae become black with increasingly noticeable orange stripes. Large larvae can consume entire leaves, leaving only the mid-vein.

These caterpillars can partially or entirely defoliate trees, but often only one or two branches are affected. Later they’ll start crawling down trees to the ground looking for pupation sites in soil and leaf litter. By that time though, they are usually about done feeding for the year so treatment is not warranted.

NCSU’s Steve Franks, supplied this additional interesting tidbit about the Orange-striped Oak Worm:

“Mark Coffelt and Pete Schultz studied this critter at Virginia Tech in the 1990’s. They looked at the life cycle, damage, parasitoids, and developed a sampling plan, aesthetic injury level, and threshold for taking action to reduce further damage.

“The authors also used a survey with photographs of trees with 15, 25, 50, 75, or 100% defoliation. 70% of respondents were willing to accept some defoliation, and 42% responded that 25% defoliation was aesthetically acceptable. Moreover, Coffelt and Schultz found that 25% defoliation did not reduce root starch reserves which is a measure of tree vigor.”

Fellow gardeners reinforce my philosophy that one doesn’t have to reach for the sprayer every time a pest takes a bite out of one of our plants. Particularly if those plants are mature, well-established trees.

Article written by Glenn Palmer, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

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Categories Insect Pests, Trees Tags caterpillars, oak, orange-striped oak worm

Western N.C. foresters seeing two pests emerging in area

July 1, 2015

Press release

RALEIGH – The N.C. Forest Service is reporting outbreaks of two forest pests that have already had significant impacts on trees in the western part of the state.
“Oaks in Western North Carolina, particularly red oaks, are losing leaves as a result of oak leaf blister, a disease caused by a fungus,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “In addition, foresters are reporting damage from yellow-poplar leaf mining weevil, which is causing widespread browning and defoliation on yellow-poplar trees.”
Most years, oak leaf disease is of minor consequence and fluctuations are typically associated with early spring weather, said State Forester David Lane. “Oak tree leaves will have light green, yellow or white leaf spots. As the disease progresses, the spots form yellow or brown puckered lesions or blisters,” Lane said. “When the infection is severe, the entire leaf yellows, curls and drops prematurely.”
Chemical control is not needed, as the disease affects only the leaves and, as with most defoliating pests, a single year of defoliation will not affect the long-term health of the tree, Lane said. Landowners are instead encouraged to maintain general tree health, such as watering during dry periods.
The yellow-poplar leaf mining weevil is damaging mostly yellow-poplars, but it can also attack magnolias and sassafras trees, Lane said. Adult weevils feed on leaf tissue in April and May. They then mate, lay eggs, and when the immature weevils emerge in early summer, they mine the leaf, or feed on the internal tissues. As a result, the leaves die and turn brown.
Most years, infestations are not widespread and are generally not considered a threat to yellow-poplar timber, Lane said. Outbreaks have been recorded in the Eastern U.S. since 1960. During the 1960s, outbreaks similar to the ones being seen now caused significant foliage loss on yellow-poplar in the Appalachian Mountain region, Lane said.
Foliage destruction temporarily reduces the aesthetic values of landscape trees. To manage the pest, promoting general tree health is best. The outbreak should subside on its own, especially with the help of native wasps, which destroy up to 50 percent of the weevil larvae, Lane said.

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Categories Insect Pests, Plant Diseases, Trees Tags oak, oak leaf blister, poplar weevils, tulip poplar

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