Stem borers in apple

Hello, everyone,
On Friday I visited an orchard with an infestation of stem borers - Oberea, probably Oberea myops, in the longhorn beetle family Cerambycidae.  This species also bores in the twigs of blueberry and rhododendron.  Another longhorned beetle, roundheaded appletree borer, is usually found under the bark of the trunk.  In this infestation, the infested shoots often resembled shoot blight, a phase of fire blight.  At the base of the twig was a tiny entrance hole, often with whitish sawdust-like frass. The long, legless yellowish larvae could be found when tunnels were opened.

More later, Doug

An update on spotted lanternfly population development

Hello, everyone,

We are continuing our observations on spotted lanternfly, a new invasive to Virginia, that includes all of our fruit crops, hops, forest trees, and some vegetables in its host list.

This week we sampled nymphal populations in the known infestation area in the northern part of Winchester.  As expected, nymphs were found on a wide variety of plants - wild grape, wild cherry, honeysuckle, hackberry, smooth sumac, and poison ivy.  We sampled cultivated grapes - table grapes in an arbor - and found a population of nymphs there.  This is the first record in Virginia on a crop, rather than wild plants.  The nymphs are very active, and jump readily when disturbed!  We found first and second instars - it will be some time before we expect to find the bright red fourth instar nymphs.

More later,
Doug