A tiny insect with a deadly hankering for hemlock trees has been found for the first time in an Ohio forest.
State foresters conducting a December survey at Shade River State Forest in southern Meigs County first found the aphid-size bugs, called hemlock woolly adelgids. They have been found on five trees, state officials reported.
Although state foresters believe that the infestation is small and was caught early, they will search the forest for more of the insects. They also will meet with state and federal agriculture officials to discuss the best way to exterminate the parasites.
“We’re hoping we found all the adelgids,” said Drew Todd, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ forest-health supervisor. “It’s fairly inactive in the winter, so we have time to discuss it and figure it out.”
Known for the cottony sac shelters that they weave on branches, adelgids feed on the nutrients that hemlock trees store at the base of their needles. Adelgids can kill an adult tree in a few years.
Likely passengers on hemlocks imported from Asia, adelgids were first found in the United States near Richmond, Va., in 1951. They have since spread to threaten hemlock stands in 18 Eastern states from Maine to Georgia.
They have devastated hemlock stands in Southern states, where milder winter weather poses less of a threat to adelgid eggs.
Although the hemlock isn’t considered an important timber species, a 2007 West Virginia Department of Agriculture report said it is used in the production of log homes, pulpwood, lumber and bark mulch.
Ohio officials have long feared that the adelgid, a native of Japan, could become the next big threat to Ohio trees. Other tree-killing insects found in Ohio include the ash-tree-killing emerald ash borer, which is found in 56 of Ohio’s 88 counties; and the Asian long-horned beetle, which was discovered last year near Bethel in Clermont County.
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