Disease Is a Threat to Pine Trees
Published: Jun. 17, 2008
URBANA - A very small worm-like animal is responsible for the death of Scotch, Austrian and red pines in the Midwest. The creature is a pine wood nematode, about 1/30 of an inch in length, barely visible to the naked eye, but when it feeds on pine trees, it causes pine wilt and the tree dies in a matter of months.
The nematode has a unique mode of transportation. It actually hitches a ride to another tree within the breathing pores of a long-horned beetle, usually the Carolina pine sawyer, said University of Illinois entomologist James Appleby.
"The Carolina pine sawyer feeds on the tender pine shoots. Then, during the feeding process, the nematodes, which are tightly packed within the breathing pores of the beetle, leave the pores and enter the feeding wound on the tree. Once within the tree, the nematodes multiply rapidly and the tree dies," said Appleby.
Appleby said that inn order to control the pest, all dead and dying pine trees must be cut to ground level and logs and branches immediately converted to mulch or the wood burned. "Don't store the logs for firewood as infested beetles will eventually emerge and spread the nematode."
He also recommends that future evergreen plantings should consist of a variety of trees such as spruces, firs, arborvitae, and white pine. "Although white pine occasionally gets pine wilt disease it is less susceptible," he said.
Pine wilt disease and other insects which attack trees and shrubs in the Midwest will be covered in an entomology course (NRES 280—Forest and Landscape Insects) presented on Thursday evenings at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois beginning August 28th through December 4th.
For further information on this course, visit www.nres.uiuc.edu/chicagohort or contact Heather Miller, Academic Outreach Program Director (217-265-6568; hmiller1@illinois.edu).
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