Hemlock Woolly Adelgids – an exotic pest from Asia first found in the U.S. in 1951 near Richmond, Va., has found its way into the Cayuga basin. According to a USDA pest alert, this pest threatens the health and sustainability of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) in our area, and the Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) further south.
If you spot any in our neck of the woods, please let Mark Whitmore in the Natural Resources Department at Cornell know: mcw42@cornell.edu.
Please keep them there. I am petrified to think of them moving west. Too depressing to even contemplate.
They have turned entire mountain tops into hemlock ghost towns, nothing left but dead trunks. Saplings survive but live only long enough to make a few cones before being killed.
I don’t have any on my property, that I know of. But I grew up on a big parcel with many, many great hemlocks. These critters have me worried.