Asian Longhorn Beetle

[Gollum]

Thank you to WAZ for letting us know about the Forestry Commission meeting in

Paddock Wood this week.

Just a few picks from the meeting:

Pic 1. shows the entry point of the larva.

The female lays one egg at this point; when the larva hatches it bores into the tree.

Pic 2. shows cracking through the stem, where the larva has bored underneath.

Pic 3. shows exit hole of the mature beetle.

Pic 4. the larva.

 

 

 

 

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

thanks for posting gollum, really gratefull for this as I couldnt go.

[SJH]

Thats a big bug! fair sized hole from the beatle too!.

[Minotaur]

I went along to the meeting as its only a few miles down the road from me

 

Would like to thank WAZ for posting it up and Bruce Rothnie of the Forestry Commission for arranging the meeting.

 

It was interesting and informative, Bruce and his colleagues from FERA gave us a talk about the outbreak at Paddock Wood. Basically, the beetle arrived on site, a small industrial site, in wooden packaging materials from China.

They found the first Beetle there in 2009, and have been monitoring the area yearly since. Unfortunately they have now identified quite a number of trees on site and the localised area - approx 100 metre spread - where it has been identified that eggs have been layed, and larva are eating the trees and at least 1 full grown beetle has been found - think thats right.

 

We were shown some parts of trees with Beetle dmage and then walked around site looking at various trees, again damaged by egg laying, larva galleries and Beetle exit holes approx 9-11mm in diameter and almost perfectly circular - I for one was enthralled.

 

They made it clear that if you find a beetle, or suspect a tree or trees, are infested/infected then to call the following number:

 

0844 2840071 - immediately

 

The only two options for destruction are to chip any infected wood, it must be chipped smalled than 2.5cm sq, or to burn the wood on site.

But please make sure you contact the above phone number before destroying any wood or removing from site.

 

Make no mistake this Beetle is on the UN's 5 most dangerous creatures to trees and plants, in the WORLD!

 

Hope that helps anyone who couldn't make the meeting.

[raafbeard]

Cheers for the info. I am assuming that infestations are not species specific ? Or is there preferred conditions for the larvae ie. decay, young wood etc?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

good question

[Luke Quenby]

Cheers for the info. I am assuming that infestations are not species specific ? Or is there preferred conditions for the larvae ie. decay, young wood etc?

 

From what I know about these little critters, they prefer most of the broadleaves - Acer and Poplar in particular, and live wood, sap wood, heart wood, they're not fussy eaters .

 

The larvae tunnel into the cambial reigion and stay out of range of Woodpeckers etc, and the pupation occurs in the heartwood, so I belive they are only found more in live stands than deadwood - though if they have been transported on pallets from Asia they must have a long life cycle / diapause abilities also.

 

Very destructive & very dangerous, we all need to keep our eye's wide open for this one.........

[Gollum]

Specific to broad leaf.

The preferred is sycamore and other acer species.

The infected trees that we looked at were mainly sycamore and one willow.

[Gollum]

From what I know about these little critters, they prefer most of the broadleaves - Acer and Poplar in particular, and live wood, sap wood, heart wood, they're not fussy eaters .

 

The larvae tunnel into the cambial reigion and stay out of range of Woodpeckers etc, and the pupation occurs in the heartwood, so I belive they are only found more in live stands than deadwood - though if they have been transported on pallets from Asia they must have a long life cycle / diapause abilities also.

 

Very destructive & very dangerous, we all need to keep our eye's wide open for this one.........

 

Two years in the stem as Lava.

as you said the pupation occurs in the heartwood

[Minotaur]

As above, but the Larvae travel all around the area they populate/infest, hence the collapsed galleries in alot of the pictures - they remain as larvae for between 1-3 years, dependent on geographic location and average temperatures. So here in the Uk most would be approx 2 years. They tend to lay the eggs higher up the tree in the canopy towards the top of the trunk or on main branches, often where they join the stem.

 

Adult beetles are generally found/appear between May and August but can appear as late as October. The newly emerged adult beetles fly high into the crowns to feed on green bark and to find a mate. They are not known to be strong fliers but can travel up to a few hundred metres.

 

The eggs are laid in a slit chewed in the bark - approx 10mm across. theyare laid singularly and an adult female can lay between 30-90 eggs in her 2 month life.

 

There may well be a fine frass or what looks like fine saw dust by any holes or cracks in the tree that is pushed out by the larvae as they travel up and down their tunnels.

 

Chris