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February 5

Officials hunt invasive insect in Maine

The Associated Press

AUGUSTA — The Maine Forest Service says a survey crew has begun a search Down East for signs of an invasive insect that's already damaged trees along southern Maine's coast.

click image to enlarge

Little hemlock-woolly adelgids begin to take over a tree. The Maine Forest Service fears the adelgids have spread to Down East Maine.

Photo courtesy of the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture

A Forest Service crew is looking for evidence of hemlock-woolly adelgid on Mount Desert Island. The crew also will work with national park and U.S. Forest Service staff to survey in Acadia National Park before moving on to coastal Waldo, Hancock and Washington counties.

Forest entomologist Allison Kanoti says the invasive insect was reported last year at two sites on the island and in January in Alfred, suggesting that the insect population is moving inland and up Maine's coast.

The hemlock-woolly adelgid resembles miniature cotton balls. It causes infested trees to have off-color needles and eventually kills them.

 

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