Indiana Department of Natural Resources sent this bulletin at 09/01/2020 01:20 PM EDT
Weekly Review for September 1, 2020
This informal report by the Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology is designed to update the Nursery and Greenhouse industry of insect and disease pests the Division has been encountering on a week to week basis and as a way to give a “heads up” of things to be on the lookout for. Comments and questions about this report are welcome and can be sent to your respective Inspector.
What a year it has been. Most of the inspectors are wrapping up nursery inspections for the season, so this is the last “weekly” Weekly Review for 2020. But don’t fret. We will send out a few more issues through the end of the year as things come in. We really appreciate you following along as we go through the year. As always, feel free to reach out with comments and questions anytime!
Despite working for DEPP for more than eight years now, this continues to be a season of firsts for me. I have never been privileged enough to see a hummingbird moth (Hemaris spp.) so I was pretty excited to see one resting in the early morning sun. After closer examination, I saw that it had damaged hind wing so it’s probably not flying far. Good thing there’s plenty of food source nearby.
In the last week or so, I have seen an uptick of lace bug. I didn’t see much in the way of adults, but there were plenty of nymphs causing noticeable damage on English oaks. I have also been seeing a lot more fall webworm that I have for the last few years. Most of what I have been seeing in central Indiana is of the red headed-biotype, but in one nest, there seemed to be both types.
If you need to give trees some support, that’s fine. Just remember to loosen their bonds periodically because this is bad. Just saying.
I happened across some neighboring ant colonies that decided that had had enough of one another and declared war. These pavement ants are an introduced species but have naturalized across Indiana. They get there name from their habit of piling mounds of soil around cracks and crevices of pavement or concrete. Generally, these wars are waged over territory and the aftermath isn’t much to look at as the victors carry off the carcasses of the losing side to feed their own colony.
