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Pest Alert: Sirex woodwasp (Sirex noctilio) found in Pennsylvania
and expands range in New York (August 2006)
On July 24, 2006 a female Sirex woodwasp was collected
from a trap in Tioga County Pennsylvania. This wasp
was identified by Cornell University and the Systematic
Entomology Lab in Beltsville, MD confirmed the identity
of the insect. The first detection of the Sirex woodwasp
in the United State was in 2004 is Oswego County,
New York. In 2005 the wasp was detected in 4 more
NY counties (Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Wayne).
As a result of the 2006 survey conducted by state
and federal officials, the Sirex woodwasp has been
detected in an additional 15 counties (Allegany, Chautauqua,
Erie, Genesee, Jefferson, Livingston, Madison, Monroe,
Niagara, Oneida, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Wyoming,
and Yates). For those unfamiliar with the geography
of NY visit the NY Department of Environmental Conservation
Sirex webpage for a map showing the positive counties:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7248.html.
The woodwasp has also been reported from Durham,
Leeds and Greenville, Prince Edward, and Waterloo
Counties in Ontario, Canada.
In Massachusetts, the MA Dept. of Agricultural Resources
and MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation are cooperating
with the USDA, APHIS and U.S. Forest Service in conducting
Sirex noctilio surveys. To date we have found
no S. noctilio specimens in traps in Massachusetts.
In the New England state and federal agencies are
conducting Sirex surveys in Connecticut, Maine, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. For more information
and photos of the Sirex woodwasp visit our website:
http://massnrc.org/pests/pestFAQsheets/european%20woodwasp.htm
This pest alert is from the Massachusetts Introduced
Pests Outreach Project, a collaborative project between
the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
and the UMass Extension Agriculture and Landscape
Program aimed at preventing the establishment of new
pathogens and pests in Massachusetts. Visit the project
website (http://www.massnrc.org/pests)
for more information on other
emerging pests and to
subscribe or unsubscribe from our pest alert list.
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