Left unchecked, the Hemlock Wooley Adelgid, Asian Longhorn Beetle, and the Emerald Ash Borer would just about wipe out one-third of the trees in North America. Imagine the scene, something out of a sci-fi movie. Just stubs of billions of dead trees across the Southern Tier, and beyond. In today’s column, I will give you some insight into these three little critters that have already, and continue to destroy our forests. First the Adelgids.

They are aphid-like insects. The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is a tiny exotic invasive species that gets its name from its woolly white appearance and because its host is the hemlock tree. Adults lay 50-300 eggs that are wrapped in a white fluffy substance secreted by an adult female. Nymphs hatch from the eggs and use their mouthparts to pierce and suck sap from the hemlock branch. These nymphs go through several stages before becoming adults and then wrap themselves with a white, fuzzy covering. Some adults stay on and suck sap from young twigs on hemlock trees, others fly off to find another tree. They cause the hemlock needles to dry out and drop. The defoliation of the tree can cause the hemlock to die in only a few years.