[MAIPC] Exciting Update on Biocontrol for Ailanthus

Tue Dec 25 06:45:29 PST 2018

   This is very old news. V. albo-atrum and V. dahliae were used at Penn State by Dr. Don Davis's grad students Mark Schall and Matt Kasson to kill Ailanthus 10 years ago. At the same time, my work based on the work of Dr. Jay Stipes of Virginia Tech showed that Fusarium oxysporum could do the same. Mark and Matt used an injection based method. Whereas as I proposed that Atteva aurea and Aculops ailanthii were mechanisms of disease spread between Ailanthus trees. F. lateritium also apparently does damage to Ailanthus. One important experiment will be to document the spread of disease between clones and root graphs. (I would love to take a fire-hose to a stand of Ailanthus trees to wash the soil from the roots to map the clones and root graphs!)

  If anyone wants more information, Matt Kasson is now at West Virginia University and I am in Berks County, PA. Both of us are willing to share what we know. All of us did work in the Chambersburg area. Ailanthus stands next to Rt. 30 between Chambersburg and Gettysburg and along I-270 near Urbana, MD were severely reduced to completely destroyed.
  One of the odd consequences of the Spotted Lanternfly is that it may move diseases between Ailanthus trees. If so, this will be at the point where the nymph stage becomes adults and explosively move across the ecology. Apparently, once the adults settle on an Ailanthus tree, I doubt they move between Ailanthus trees except possibly females to lay eggs on non-Ailanthus and then move afterwards to a different Ailanthus trees in a stand to feed until dying. This needs more observation to determine if females die soon after egg deposition or live until a hard freeze kills them. If they die soon after egg laying, it would explain the large and unexpected difference in numbers between males and females I am seeing on Ailanthus trees. I expected a one-to-one correspondence, but am not seeing it.
  Yesterday, we walked from SGL110-10 to the top of the ridge on a dirt road build by the PA Game Commission. Very clearly, SLF hitched rides on vehicles from different parts of Berks County and dropped off on the way up the mountain to lay eggs no more than 30 feet from the dirt road. Also, once at the top we found lots of dead SLF still stuck to Ailanthus trees, but not one egg mass on any of the 30+ Ailanthus trees. Today, we will be looking at two different Ailanthus stands in Blue Marsh to see if this holds up.

                                                     Richard Gardner
    On Monday, December 24, 2018, 11:59:39 PM EST, Marc Imlay <ialm at erols.com> wrote:  

RAPHINE — The kudzu of the tree world could one day be controlled by a fungus.

Virginia Tech graduate student Rachel Brooks is testing how the fungus verticillium attacks tree of heaven, an invasive species for which Brooks used the kudzu reference. The hope: that the fungus will help kill the tree, which grows just about everywhere.

Tree of heaven is a plant from China that creates problems across Virginia and the country. The tree spreads and grows rapidly, growing as much as five to ten feet a year. It often chokes out native plants, blocks drivers’ views on roadways and grows in agricultural or urban areas. There is also some evidence that the tree is a preferred breeding spot for the invasive spotted lanternfly, which could wreak havoc on Virginia crops.

The plant is prevalent at the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center, where Brooks is studying it along with several other sites across the state.

She’s inoculated a few of the trees with verticillium fungus. In a little more than a year, the fungus has killed the trees that were exposed. It’s also spread the fungus through the interwoven tree of heaven root systems to kill off many of the trees in the area.

Brooks keeps coming back to measure the fungal effects.

“The end goal is a product that you can buy in the store,” Brooks said.

https://www.roanoke.com/news/education/higher_education/virginia-tech-researchers-studying-how-fungus-among-us-can-control/article_85b9df9a-184c-5d5b-8cde-4a1854901eb9.html

From: Maipc-brd <maipc-brd-bounces at lists.maipc.org> On Behalf Of Marian Orlousky
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2018 12:32 PM
To: MAIPC Board <maipc-brd at lists.maipc.org>
Subject: [Maipc-brd] Fw: Exciting Update on Biocontrol for Ailanthus

FYI

Marian Orlousky

Northern Resource Management Coordinator

Appalachian Trail Conservancy

4 East First Street

Boiling Springs, PA 17007

Direct Line: 717-260-3217

MARO Office: 717-258-5771 ex: 208

Fax: 717.258.1442

morlousky at appalachiantrail.org

www.appalachiantrail.org

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s mission is to preserve and manage the Appalachian Trail – ensuring that its vast natural beauty and priceless cultural heritage can be shared and enjoyed today, tomorrow, and for centuries to come. To become a member, volunteer, or learn more, visit www.appalachiantrail.org.

From: rush williamson <longportage at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2018 12:07 PM
To: Marian Orlousky
Subject: Fwd: Exciting Update on Biocontrol for Ailanthus 

Marian,

Do not know if you are on their distribution but this looks like some thing up your ally.  If you do get Prism's stuff - sorry to bother you

Rush 

Exciting Update on Biocontrol for Ailanthus---------- Original Message ---------- 
From: "Blue Ridge PRISM [Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management]" <info at blueridgeprism.org> 
To: president at patc.net 
Date: December 19, 2018 at 4:29 AM 
Subject: Exciting Update on Biocontrol for Ailanthus 

Join Us for the Latest Update! 

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Join Us for Our Next Quarterly Meeting
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An Update on Biological Control for Tree-of-Heaven
January 16, 2019
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
The Education Building at Ivy Creek Natural Area  

1780 Earlysville Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903 

Guest Speaker: Rachel Brooks, PhD Candidate at Virginia Tech, will be giving the latest update on her promising research on using Verticillium wilt as a biological control for tree-of-heaven.

We hope to see you there!
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