Country: United States

Title: Detection of Sirex noctilio Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Siricidae) (sirex woodwasp) in Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oswego Counties in New York

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On July 5, 2005, the Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, confirmed that male and female woodwasps, which were reared from scotch pine logs (Pinus sylvestris L.) that had been cut from standing trees in Oswego (Oswego County) New York, are Sirex noctilio.    This is the first report of a reproducing population of this APHIS’ Regulated Plant Pest in the United States. 

 

As a follow-up to the February 19, 2005, confirmation of a single female S. noctilio collected from a Lindgren funnel trap in Fulton (Oswego County) New York, a team of scientists and regulatory officials from APHIS, the United States Forest Service, and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets surveyed pine trees in Fulton and Oswego, New York.  Six scotch pine and two red pine (Pinus resinosa Soland) trees in Oswego were identified as suspect by Dr. Dennis Haugen, with U.S. Forest Service (FS), and were tagged on May 12, 2005. The scotch pine trees were felled on May 20, 2005, and logs were sent to the APHIS’ Pest Survey Detection and Exclusion Laboratory at Otis Air National Guard Base, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for rearing experiments.  On July 15, 2005, the two remaining red pine trees were felled and logs were sent to the APHIS’ Cape Cod, Massachusetts Laboratory for rearing.

 

In response to the confirmed detections of S. noctilio in Oswego County, New York, the

 “2005 S. noctilio Trapping Survey Plan” was designed by the APHIS Pest Survey Detection and Exclusion Laboratory and implemented on July 6, 2005 by APHIS and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.  During the week of July 17, the delimiting survey yielded eight female woodwasps which were identified as S. noctilio by Dr. E. Richard Hoebeke, with Cornell University, and confirmed by the Systematic Entomology Laboratory on

August 1, 2005.  All these sirex woodwasps were collected in Lindgren funnel traps.  At the

10-mile radius trap circle, one female was captured in Oswego County.  At the 20-mile radius trap circle, seven S. noctilio females were caught, all at different locations and in three different counties (Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oswego).

 

APHIS is coordinating with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to continue delimiting surveys and the U.S. FS is assisting by providing ground survey personnel and conducting aerial surveys of host trees in Oswego and surrounding counties in New York.  

 

New Pest Response Guidelines for S. noctilio are undergoing internal review by APHIS’ scientists and external review by the National Plant Board and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and will be published as soon as the guidelines have been finalized. 

 

Posted Date: Aug. 9, 2005, 9 a.m.