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Curtis Young reported that woodpeckers on The Ohio State University Lima Campus have been working hard on ash trees infested with EAB. While woodpeckers may occasionally attack living ash trees that are not infested with EAB, heavy woodpecker activity on living ash trees should be investigated to see if the hammered trees harbor EAB larvae (a.k.a. woodpecker food). Curtis noted that the OSU-Lima woodpeckers were very talented in being able to find late instar EAB larvae under the bark. As the woodpeckers dug into the trees for tender morsels of EAB, they flecked off the dull gray outer bark exposing the underlying light tan-colored bark. The color contrast was dramatic and very apparent allowing him to spot infested trees, sometimes from great distances.
Curtis did some bark stripping on a small infested ash tree to check on the EAB development. EAB galleries were easy to find under the bark. Following the frass-packed galleries, it was easy to find where the larvae had ended their feeding the previous fall. The galleries were their widest at this point and the frass was still a bright white color. However, at first there appeared to be no larvae under the bark. Larvae were eventually found by scraping the frass out of the galleries, exposing a small opening into the trunk of the tree about an inch back from the end of the gallery. Digging into the trunk of the tree with a knife, pre-pupal larvae (larvae folded over in a V-shape) were found about a 1/4" into the trunk of the tree. These were the larvae that had not yet been found by the woodpeckers.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 April 2008 18:21 )
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BYGL 
