November 6, 2023

2022-2023 Update

The tree bands I've seen in Charlotte this season have been on private property for the most part. The city of Charlotte has drastically curtailed their banding. Rightfully so, since I saw no cankerworms on the trees I looked at. My inspection was limited almost exclusively to about 20 trees on Latrobe Drive.

Posted on November 6, 2023 03:57 PM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 22, 2021

Comment on relative abundance

I just made a post that I want to use to emphasize the point that in making observations for this project I don't pay attention to relative abundance. I'm most often by far looking for new taxa. Take a look here where I show 6 larvae of the lichen carrying green lacewing Leucochrysa pavida trapped in one field of view: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68458137 Up to this point I had only posted one other individual. It breaks my bug-loving heart to witness the mortality that these tree bands inflict on this species. It seems to be part of the natural history of L. pavida larvae to climb the trunks of (oak) trees under cover with their lichen camouflage where they get trapped and die by the hundreds each tree banding season. If I were documenting relative abundance I'd be photographing this species very very often along with countless flies and spiders that I ignore.

Posted on January 22, 2021 07:48 PM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment

November 2, 2020

Mecklenburg drops widespread banding

I managed to contact and share the data from this project with people that run the tree banding program in Mecklenburg County, which for several years has resulted in the banding of thousands of trees in Charlotte. Independently of this project, they had noticed that very few Fall Cankerworms were being caught the past couple years. I think the variety of non-target arthropods that we've documented here became icing on the cake. They're still going to band 500 trees to monitor the situation. They were uncertain about whether to advise homeowners not to band their trees this year. I still plan to keep an eye on things by monitoring bands I come across.

On another note, a Spotted Lanternfly has been discovered in Yancey County! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63887835#activity_comment_5748467 Should they gain a foothold, look for widespread tree banding down the road. It's this critter (along with Gypsy Moths) that drives banding in the Northeast.

Posted on November 2, 2020 12:03 AM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment

April 8, 2020

Rule change - just NC

I've decided to restrict this project to North Carolina, and to be true to its intention (to monitor "collateral damage") to exclude the target species in this area, the Fall Cankerworm, Alsophila pometaria. I struggled with this decision at the outset, but as it's sorting out I think that if the project has any value in the long run, it will be in providing background information on the specific problem of using tree bands in North Carolina to control cankerworms. I'll let others tackle the issue where bands are used to control Gypsy Moths and Spotted Lanternflies.

Posted on April 8, 2020 04:37 PM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment

March 27, 2020

100 SPECIES! (and a summary)

I'm celebrating our 100th tree band species today. Maybe that shouldn't be a celebration, now that I think of it. For the record, this included North Carolina firsts for 16 species (7 beetles, 1 syrphid, 1 sawfly, 2 spiders, 1 psyllid, 1 moth, 1 ichneumonid, 1 collembolan, and 1 leafhopper). The collembolan, Prorastriopes wexfordensis, was a world iNat 1st (and 1st record for BugGuide) as was the zopherid beetle a world iNat 1st (Hyporhagus punctulatus). Needless to say, if you put Tanglefoot traps over a couple hundred trees or so you're going to trap (and unfortunately kill) a lot of bugs.

Sometimes I sample haphazardly, sometimes I make a count. Adding up days when I counted the trees I looked at during an outing this season, I've seen just 8 Fall Cankerworms on 102 banded trees.

-Ken

Posted on March 27, 2020 09:44 PM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment

March 19, 2020

Yes, females carry a lot of eggs!

I dissected this female Fall Cankerworm today (Alsophila pometari) and lo and behold she was packed with eggs, right up to her head, see: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40243107 As I wrote on this post, I had been intrigued earlier by the huge number of large eggs a female can lay, see: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38406580 Looks like a female at this stage is an egg case that has retained the ability to climb and release eggs when she gets to foliage, nothing else!

You can see why an army of females might prompt the use of tree bands. On that note, for this year, this seems not to be a concern. Since my last journal post I've surveyed 62 trees and have only seen this one female and one male Fall Cankerwrom.

Ken

Posted on March 19, 2020 06:07 PM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment

March 10, 2020

More evidence of...

I hit the trails again on March 3, 2020 and counted 4 fall cankerworm females on 27 trees. Of course, dozens of other arthropods were trapped. Check out this study at Davidson College that shows this iNat project is reinventing the wheel: https://www.jncas.org/doi/abs/10.7572/JNCAS-D-1500002.1

Here's the abstract from their publication (copied without permission, I hope this is OK)

We monitored the accumulation of non-target arthropods and leaf litter on tree bands used for cankerworm control during a 4-week period in the autumn of 2013 prior to the beginning of cankerworm emergence. Accumulation of non-target arthropods and leaf debris may reduce the efficacy of tree bands in controlling cankerworms and harm non-target tree-dwelling arthropods. Ten oak trees were randomly selected from a set of 17 banded trees along one walkway on Davidson College in the Town of Davidson, NC, where cankerworms have recently become more abundant. Banding is known to capture high numbers of certain forest pests such as fall cankerworms (Alsophila pometaria (Harris)), although conclusive evidence that banding reduces defoliation is lacking. We found that non-target arthropods and leaves accumulated at a steady rate prior to emergence of cankerworm adults. Many predatory arthropods, including spiders, assassin bugs, praying mantids, lacewing larvae, and ladybird beetles were observed entangled and walking free on bands outside the Tanglefoot-covered area. We found indirect evidence for predation or consumption of trapped arthropods off of bands by birds and predatory insects. Early installation of tree bands prior to cankerworm adult emergence potentially damages the rest of the arthropod community.

Posted on March 10, 2020 12:32 AM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 1 comment | Leave a comment

February 20, 2020

Collection tip #1

I just thought I'd share my collection technique at this moment. I carry a paper cup with me and a toothpick. It's easy to lift a bug out of the Tanglefoot and wipe it inside the cup. When I get home I take scissors and cut the cup into pieces that have bugs, then photograph. I do most of my photographing with a camera mounted to a microscope, not sure how well a camera with macro lens might work, given the Tanglefoot smear. This link: http://idtools.org/id/leps/tortai/Removal_from_sticky_1993.pdf suggests using citrus oil to remove the sticky goo. I haven't tried this yet, since I'm not exactly sure what to buy. So far, with the help of iNat specialists on various insect groups, like bark beetles and stink bugs, I've been able to ID several to species despite the Tanglefoot. -Ken

Posted on February 20, 2020 06:28 PM by kenkneidel kenkneidel | 0 comments | Leave a comment