Articles Archive
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Fall Webworm
Late in the summer of 1998, big vertical gray tents of the fall webworm enshrouded the tops of almost every tree along some roads. They looked especially unappealing after the leaves fell. Even after driving by thousands of them, alert birdwatchers could still mistake the empty webs for the distant silhouette of a perched hawk, and be disappointed as the… (more)
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Forest Spiders
Silk-spinning spiders have been around for roughly 400 million years, and they’ve made good use of their time. Today, they occupy just about every habitable region of the Earth. Scientists have identified about 40,000 arachnid species, and some think there might be four times as many waiting to be discovered. Recently, in Milbridge, Maine, two researchers collected 302 species of… (more)
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Halloween Ladybeetle
The ladybeetle family includes many cute and shiny beetles – they’re usually bright orange or red, with some black and white thrown in for contrast. As a group, they specialize in consuming agricultural pests, especially aphids, and they don’t sting or bite. These attributes and the fact that there are so many of them – about 5,000 species worldwide and… (more)
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Balsam Woolly Adelgid
Balsam woolly adelgids (BWA) were first noticed in this country in Brunswick, Maine, in 1908. Like the dreaded hemlock woolly adelgid, this tiny, wingless, introduced insect feeds by inserting its sucking mouthparts into a tree. There are differences between the miniature insects, but the end result is often the same: both have killed millions of very large trees.
BWAs will… (more)
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Entomophaga maimaiga
Out-of-control fungi that kill entire populations across a wide geographic area are usually viewed with utter horror: late blight on our garden tomatoes and potatoes and the white-nose syndrome that kills bats come to mind as recent examples. But Entomophaga maimaiga, a fungus that kills gypsy moth caterpillars, and – thank goodness – only those of the gypsy moth, has… (more)
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Giant Ichneumon Wasp
When an insect develops on a single host, and kills the host in the process, it is called a parasitoid. Parasites, on the other hand, tend to nibble on their hosts without killing them. And predators kill more than one of their prey items.
Because most parasitoids spend much of their lives buried within the bodies of their victims, they… (more)
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Sapstreak Disease
On a walk through a still, snowy sugarbush, the peacefulness can be overwhelming; everything looks to be in good order. But all may not be as perfect as it seems. In any sugarbush, there is a good chance that a fungal intruder has gained entry and is wintering unseen beneath the rich, dark bark of an unlucky sugar maple. If… (more)
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Hay-Scented Fern
Wily, non-native plants that outperform native species and proceed to carpet the forest and field are all too familiar nowadays. Most of us have seen understories of European buckthorn or Eurasian honeysuckle species where normal tree regeneration doesn’t stand a chance. The wild chervil, garlic mustard, and wild parsnip introduced from Europe seem to have supernatural powers as they march… (more)
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Blue Stain, Also Called Sap Stain
Most loggers are well aware of the perils of blue stain. If freshly cut logs are left for any length of time in the summer months, one of the many species of fungus that leave bluish streaks in the wood is sure to invade the logs, dramatically reducing their value.
White pine and sugar maple are among the most… (more)
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Fire Blight, Erwinia amylovora
An apple orchard in late May, just as the trees’ deep pink buds expand into pale pink blossoms, is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I won’t tell about the smells or the songs of birds to further describe this heaven, because this story is about fire blight, a bacterial disease that first strikes right at this magical… (more)