Also, don't forget that the wood wasp is only a problem because of the fungus it carries and introduces to the pines. It is the symbiotic companion of the wasp which needs the treatment/prevention.
Alan Walker
Lake Charles, LA, USA

From: Jim Lewis

wrote:
Jim:
I honestly cannot explain the small plague that attacked
the tree. The tree had been potted and under design work
for nearly 7 years, so I doubt that they were in the
soil.

I failed to mention that PA had a problem with the
buggers that year, so my black pine was undoubtedly in
the wrong place at the right time.

My new concern is over the potential damage from the
Woodwasp sighting in New York. Do you think pyrethrins
would be of any value?
Cordially,
Michael

The curse (and blessing) of pyrethrins is that they kill on
CONTACT. But spray a leaf or branch, etc., and then a
critter walks across it a half-hour later and dies? Nope.
The pyrethrin (made from chrysanthemum extract) decomposes
into natural, harmless products very quickly. But fewer and
fewer inorganic pesticides do that (last) anymore, either
because of the fear of long-lasting residual poisoning.

If you can hit a wood wasp with pyrethrin, it'll likely kill it.

But I didn't get the impression that the wood wasp had
necessarily established itself "in the wild."

But everyone needs to brace themselves for more contacts
with exotic, damaging critters (and diseases). The world is
getting too small, and there are too few people checking
stuff that comes in to this (or any other) country --
especially containerized stuff. Critters can come in on the
goods themselves, the packaging around the goods, in the
materials in which they were transported from point of
shipment to point of arrival and in a myriad other ways.
And all we're necessarily talking about is a batch of tiny
eggs laid on the underside of a box, or a worm or two boring
into the wooden container that the farm tractor is boxed in,
or a "moldy" bit of some stevedore's left-behind lunch.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Kevin Bailey++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++