new fungal adelgid treatment   Paul Jost
  Feb 02, 2007 18:44 PST 

Hi all,

The following item was picked up by the Associated Press today evnen
though the German press reported it several days ago. Anyway, here's a
new fungal treatment for adelgids that is currently beign developed:

Paul Jost

From
http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=2238

Fungal Fighter


By Joshua Brown
Article published January 30, 2007

Reaching into a box glowing with fluorescent light, Stacie Grassano
pulls out a tube. “This is a great one,” she says, holding the clear
plastic up to her face. Inside, a tree branch is speckled with white
fluff. “It’s growing really well,” she says, handing it to Scott Costa.
Costa brings the branch close to his eye. “Yes,” he says, with a boyish
grin, “this is a fungus success story.”

For some, a fungus success story means nothing is growing at the back of
their refrigerator. But for Costa, research assistant professor of plant
and soil science, and Grassano, his graduate student, the vigorous
growth in their laboratory of this fungus, a strain called Lecanicillium
muscarium, means a hopeful new chapter in the otherwise bleak tale of
the eastern hemlock tree.

Battling an exotic pest
From Georgia to Maine, this once-mighty conifer is now succumbing to an
exotic pest, hemlock woolly adelgid. First detected in the western
United States in 1924, the adelgid caused little damage. But when it was
carried east and reached Virginia in the 1950s it began its destructive
spread. An aphid-like insect, the adelgid kills eastern hemlocks within
a few years after infestation, feeding on the sap at the base of their
needles and cutting off their nutrients.

While the adelgid, originally from Japan and China, appears to have no
successful predators in North America, some native fungi — like the one
Costa and Grassano have growing on branches in their laboratory — kill
the pest.

Last December, Costa, Grassano, and two other researchers, Vladimir
Gouli and Jiancai Li, submitted a provisional patent for a new method of
cheaply and effectively spreading the fungus, and other similar
“biological controls,” that might beat back the adelgid without having
to use expensive, toxic pesticides. They call their approach a
“whey-based fungal micro-factory.”

Instead of growing fungi in a conventional factory and then transporting
it out to a forest — a costly proposition — their factory will be the
forest. Or, more accurately, tiny droplets of sweet whey — a cheap waste
product of cheese production, inoculated with the right concentrations
of the target fungus — will be their factory. By spraying the whey
solution into an infected forest, they believe they can get the
adelgid-killing fungi to reproduce in large numbers on its own.

“The sweet whey only costs 32 cents a pound,” says Costa, who gets his
donated from a New York-based cheese company and receives support for
his research from the US Department of Agriculture.

The whey is a far cheaper growing medium than those typically available
in labs, and it serves as a nutritional resource, making each droplet a
cozy biological factory for a fungal colony, pumping spores out into the
forest long after the spraying teams have gone home.

Costa and Grassano’s experiments on branches taken from adelgid-infected
forests in Massachusetts are proving highly successful, with rapid
growth of the target fungi outcompeting other fungi that live on
hemlocks. If their laboratory tests continue to go well, the researchers
anticipate starting field trials in 2008. And beyond the adelgid, the
researchers anticipate that micro-factories could be used with fungi
that attack other insects, weeds and even plant diseases.

The economy and ease of the UVM team’s whey micro-factory technology may
prove a critical consideration for land managers — especially in large
areas with low economic value, like wild hemlock forests.

“We’re not going to eradicate the adelgid,” Costa says. “The best-case
scenario for an insect-killing fungi is you inoculate the environment
and get disease outbreaks to start cycling. The idea is to reduce the
pest population to a level that is manageable, allowing some of the
trees to make seeds, grow and survive.”

Time becoming crucial factor
It’s a pressing problem: In Shenandoah National Park most of the famous
towering hemlocks are now dead. The adelgid has ravaged parts of
Kentucky, North Carolina and the Smoky Mountains. Expanding northward,
it has moved through Massachusetts into southern Maine and New
Hampshire.

The only natural deterrent to the adelgid seems to be a very cold
winter. With global warming, their northward spread seems inevitable.
Though not officially recorded yet, “it’s probably in southern Vermont
now at population levels too low to easily detect,” say Costa, who
anticipates that the adelgid will be into the Champlain Valley in not
too many years, though whether it would soon reach the coldest parts of
the Northeast Kingdom seems unlikely.

While the era of cutting hemlock for the tanning industry is over, there
continues to be use of the tree for fiber and construction, and
commercial forest owners have something to lose with the demise of the
hemlock. But far more important, as the hemlocks expire they take an
ecosystem down when they fall.

In cool hollows and along shady mountain streams the hemlock has grown
for millennia where other trees wouldn’t thrive: a quiet giant soaring
to over 150 feet. With a range from Alabama along the Appalachians into
the Canadian Maritimes, its shaggy crown creates a blueish green haven
unmistakable to turkeys and deer (and hunters): a thick understory of
duff with a unique plant community, deep with shade that accentuates the
black furrows of the hemlock’s tannin-rich bark.

In winter, chickadees eat the small seed cones of the hemlock and they
are only one species of many that depend on the hemlock not just for
food but for the architecture of their world. Some warblers only nest in
hemlocks and mountain-spawning fish depend on the trees to keep streams
cool.

“See all this white growth?” Costa says in his lab in Hills Building,
tracing his finger above the soft flat needles. “That’s mycelium and
likely as not there are spores at the end of each of those.” To the
untrained eye, the fungus he and Grassano are growing looks much like
the pest they hope it will fight. Hiding on the underside of hemlock
branches, the pest produces a white woolly tuft that gives it its name.
The fungus looks white and woolly too. But the subtle difference may
mean life or death for the eastern hemlock.
RE: new fungal adelgid treatment   Phil
  Feb 02, 2007 18:54 PST 

Paul,

      As I was reading the subject line of your email I thought back to the
summer of 2005, when I was an REU intern at Harvard Forest. While in the
field I would have all sorts of conversations with the researcher I was
working with, and one of them was about fungal treatment. I was totally
shocked to see that the lead researcher is Scott Costa, who was the
researcher I was working with at Harvard Forest! I've kept in touch with
him, but he didn't mention this latest update so I'll have to find out why.

Phil
more of fungi on adelgid and scale   Paul Jost
  Feb 02, 2007 18:56 PST 

ENTS,

On the following web site are pictures of fungus on hemlock woolly
adelgid (Adelges tsugae) and on the other hemlock threat, elongate scale
(Fiorinia externa):

http://www.gouli.110mb.com/my_work.html

Use the up down arrows to scroll through the images...

Paul Jost
RE: new fungal adelgid treatment   Paul Jost
  Feb 02, 2007 18:57 PST 

Phil,

I think he had to keep some secrecy since they intended to patent the
fungus transport mechanism - the use of whey...

Paul
RE: more of fungi on adelgid and scale   Paul Jost
  Feb 02, 2007 19:13 PST 

It appears that knowledge of the fungi has existed for several years but
the breakthrough is the whey base for distribution. There is more info
on the fungi on www.invasives.org at:
http://www.invasive.org/hwa/hwa.pdf
or to avoid downloading a pdf:
http://www.invasive.org/hwa/pathogens.cfm

They apparently field tested fungi on Mount Tom, MA to find the best
ones to proceed with starting 6 years ago.

Paul
RE: more of fungi on adelgid and scale   Paul Jost
  Feb 02, 2007 19:43 PST 

I'll post one more good site on info on biological controls of HWA:
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/hwa/biological_control.shtm

PJ
RE: new fungal adelgid treatment   Phil
  Feb 02, 2007 20:37 PST 

Paul,

      That makes sense. We did other HWA research at Mt. Tom, and there are
some heavily infested areas.

Phil
RE: The Red Oaks   Doug Bidlack
  Feb 02, 2007 20:52 PST 


Steve,

that makes sense. It seems like small and shrubby often equals xeric
habitat. In the book 'Michigan Trees', the two varieties are written as
Q. rubra var. rubra and Q. rubra var. borealis. This information wasn't
in the older edition.

Doug
RE: new fungal adelgid treatment   Will Blozan
  Feb 03, 2007 10:45 PST 

Paul,

I saw Costa's presentation in 2003. I hope it will be effective, perpetual
and benign on other fungal systems that hemlocks need. However, ethical
vegans will have some trouble with it!!!

Will

==============================================================================
TOPIC: FW: Biological Controls for HWA
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/7656611cfb1a8e35?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Nov 10 2007 3:51 am
From: "Mike Leonard"


Researcher Scott Costa from the University of Vermont has found a new
way to combat the HWA. There is a fungus that attacks the adelgid, but
the problem has been in getting sufficient quantities of the fungus in
contact with the insect and doing it economically. Costa's team has
developed a "whey based fungal micro-factory" that puts the fungus in a
byproduct of cheese manufacturing. When the concoction is sprayed on a
tree, the whey provides a good medium for the insect attacking fungus to
grow. This, in turn, increases the chances of infecting the adelgid. The
product has proven 80-90% effective in the laboratory. In the field, the
chances of eradicating the adelgid are slim, but the new method will
help tree owners manage the problem and save trees.
- Taken from the Nov/Dec, 2007 issue of Arbor Day.

Also: http://www.invasive.org/hwa/ - Biological Controls for HWA
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070126085621.htm -
Fungal Factories May Save Hemlock Forests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070910132418.htm
- Japanese Beetle May Help Fight Hemlock Killing Insect

About 1/2 of the range of hemlock is infected; 90% of the hemlocks are
gone in the Shenandoah. The other 1/2 of the range is at risk.
For biological controls to really work, they must become permanently
established much like the wilt causing fungus that kills the gypsy moth
caterpillar.
This may take decades at which time the range of hemlock will be a
fraction of what it was. But a beetle/fungus combination may just save
vast tracts of hemlock forests albeit in a much reduced range.

Mike Leonard, Consulting Forester
http://www.northquabbinforestry.com   

==============================================================================
TOPIC: Anyone working with fungii in HWA IPM?
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/d657f3cac993d5aa?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Mar 21 2008 4:02 pm
From: "Ariel"


My office is slated to begin trials of a whey based fungal application on
spreading populations of HWA this year and I was wondering if anyone on this
list had done any trials with it? I've not heard much buzz about this
approach and am not sure what to expect.

Lin Greenaway

== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Mar 21 2008 4:17 pm
From: JamesRobertSmith


That's great! Where are your offices? I'm going to be very interested
in seeing your results. Are you going to post information here as it
comes in?


== 3 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Mar 21 2008 4:27 pm
From: "Edward Frank"


Lin,

This is excellent news. We had some information about the whey based product just over a year ago: http://www.nativetreesociety.org/tsuga/fungal_adelgid_treatment.htm  but I have not heard much about it since. It sounded very promising based on early trials in MA. is there any wrote up or more information about the project?

Ed Frank

== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Mar 21 2008 5:17 pm
From: "Ariel"


Answering both you and Ed,

My office is in central PA, right at the leading edge of the infestation.
We've still got beautiful hemlock stands and I was in one today telling the
landowner about this bug that is poised to kill every one of his trees. I
wanted to tell him about this new development, but I didn't feel as if I
knew enough to pass on the info. That's why I was asking here! As to the
trials, I believe I can post my observations here, though I am not part of
the experimental staff. We're supposed to start spraying this spring while
the critters are crawling, so I should be hearing something soon. I'll post
what I can and I'll try to be accurate. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

And Ed, thanks for the link! That's exactly what I was looking for!

Lin