Pine Shoot Beetle Tomicus Piniperda

Pine shoot beetle Tomicus piniperda

Description

First discovered near Cleveland, Ohio in July of

1992. Now found in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,

New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Identification

Adults are cylindrical and range from 3-5 mm long (about the size of a match head). Their head and thorax are shiny black while the wing covers are reddish-brown to black.

Habitat

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), European black pine (Pinus nigra), Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster),

Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), Red pine

(Pinus resinosa), Jack pine (Pinus banksiana and other pines. May attack Spruce (Picea spp.) and

Larch (Larix spp.).

Source: MISIN. 2021. Midwest Invasive Species Information Network. Michigan State University - Applied Spatial Ecology and Technical Services Laboratory. Available online at https://www.misin.msu.edu/facts/detail.php?id=264. Reproduction

Eggs are 1mm long, oval, smooth, and shiny white. Larvae or legless, slightly curved, have a white body and brown head, and can reach 1/4 inch (5 mm) in length. Females construct vertical egg galleries within the inner bark and outer sapwood. Egg galleries extend 4-10 inches in length. Females lay eggs singly in niches that are cut into both sides of the egg gallery. After hatching, larvae construct horizontal feedling galleries that are 1.5 to 3.5 inches long. Newly formed adults then tunnel through the outer bark creating circular exit holes about 2mm in diameter.

Impact

Causes the destruction of shoots during maturation feeding. When shoot feeding is severe, tree height and diameter growth are reduced. Adults feed primarily inside lateral shoots, mostly in the upper half of the crown from May through October. During this period, each adult may destroy 1-6 shoots. One beetle infests each shoot. They tunnel into the center and bore outwards, hollowing out 1-4 inches of the shoot. Infested shoots generally bend near the point where the beetles have entered, turn yellow or red, eventually break off, and fall to the ground.

Monitoring and Rapid Response

Destroy cull piles including pine trees, branches, etc cut and remove stumps. Trap logs have been shown effective in which fresh pine logs are set out, adult beetles colonize the logs, and the logs are then destroyed before the new generation of beetles can emerge. Cover sprays applied early to mid-June.

Credits

The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's PSB Compliance Management Program and the United States Forest

Service Pest Alert NA-TP-06-93.Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).