Weekly Review for May 9, 2024

This informal report by the Division of Entomology & Plant Pathology is a commentary on insects, diseases, and curiosities division staff encounter on a week-to-week basis. Comments and questions about this report are welcome and can be sent to your respective Inspector.

Angela Rust (Nursery Inspector & Compliance Officer) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I’ve attached a photo this week of adult weevil feeding damage on roses. Irregular notching around the edges of roses and other ornamentals is a sign of adult weevil feeding. Adults will not likely be seen unless you survey the plants at night because that’s when feeding occurs. The larvae of weevils are in the soil and feed on plant roots. Beneficial nematodes are commercially available to control root-feeding larvae or insecticides. They can be applied to target adults when notching damage appears on leaves. Several species of weevils feed on ornamental plants.

Eastern tent caterpillars in this area are maturing and leaving nests in trees to find a protective location to pupate. I’ve already been seeing a lot of Botrytis blight on geraniums. We have had a fair amount of rain this spring and this part of the state tends to be very humid. These are ideal conditions for development of Botrytis fungus. Symptoms can start as spots on leaves, cut stems, or flowers and then spots can enlarge or join together to form a large brown blighted area which causes leaves or flowers to wilt and die. Watering plants from the base instead of overhead and not overcrowding plants can help with prevention. Trimming out early signs of infected leaves and disinfecting shears in between cuts can help prevent spread. There are also fungicides available to help control this problem.

Jared Spokowsky (Nursery Inspetor & Compliance Officer) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I was asked to look at some nucs that were brought into the state this past week. I saw spotty brood, jagged torn open cappings and a foul odor. Those are typical American Foulbrood symptoms and should raise some alarm bells with any beekeeper, but it’s important to look carefully because things are not always what they appear to be at first glance. There was no oil residue on top of cappings and none of the cappings were sunken. Upon further investigation when capped cells were opened there was no decomposing brood and no open cells showed signs of hardened scale in the bottoms. When the contents of the cells were scrambled you could not get any material to rope out. This led me to look for other causes. 

The most prominent other symptom was the presence of quite a bit of chewed down brood. Chewed down brood is indicative of Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS). PMS is basically when mite populations have gotten out of control and the bees are no longer strong enough to keep up with maintaining basic hive functions. However, in this case I could not find a single mite after removing dozens of bees from capped cells and the beekeeper had stated that they were treated prior to being moved. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that all the symptoms were the result of chilled brood. The bees had been brought in during a cold snap the previous night and had a 6+ hour drive. Furthermore, a lot of the brood frames had been placed on the outside frame of the nuc.

I was also forwarded another report of dying boxwood. If you’re not familiar with boxwoods, they are a very popular evergreen landscape plant. Over the past few years there has been concern that boxwood blight could wipe them out. Although boxwood blight has been a problem, we have not seen it readily establish here in Indiana even after intercepting it multiple times on incoming nursery stock and finding it in isolated landscapes. 

Now the Box Tree Moth (BTM) is another problem that Indiana boxwood will most likely face soon. Native to China and the Korean Peninsula, it was found in Europe in 2006 and then in Canada in 2018/ It has now been found in four U.S. states (Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts). BTM is a voracious foliar feeder and can completely defoliate an entire boxwood in a single season. For more information on BTM please visit this Cornell Link. Thankfully, the residence I was called out to look at had a combination of cold damage from the winter and a heavy infestation of boxwood psyllid whose feeding damage will cause some cupping to the leaves but poses no significant threat to boxwoods.

Vince Burkle (Assistant Division Director & Nursery Inspector) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Will Drews (Nursery Inspector & Compliance Officer) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

During a recent inspection, I found a Hosta ‘Twilight’ plant with some unusual foliar characteristics. It had some discoloration to the leaves and a fair bit of bumpy, puckering, mottled sections (see below photos). After sending a sample to Purdue’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab, it was confirmed that this plant was infected with hosta virus X (HVX).

HVX is a virus that impacts all hosta cultivars. Symptoms include discoloration around the leaf veins, leaf mottling, puckering, and ringspots. In severe cases, this can lead to wilting and necrosis. Symptom presence varies among different cultivars. If you suspect HVX presence, it is wise to send a sample to a plant diagnostic lab for confirmation.

HVX is unfortunately not treatable and is spread via the sap of infected plants. Infected plants should be removed and incinerated or bagged and trashed. Do not compost infected material as it can spread the virus.

For more information, check out this Purdue University Landscape Report.

The Washington County Open Sheep Show will be Saturday, June 1, at the Washington County Fairgrounds. The event is sponsored by the Washington County Sheep Association and the Washington County Fair Board.

The Washington County Sheet Association will have food and drink concessions available.

Sheep related vendors are welcome to participate.

Check-in is 8-10 a.m. EDT; weigh-in 8:30-10 a.m.; Showmanship Starts 12:30 p.m. and Market Classes Start 30 minutes after the conclusion of Showmanship.

Showmanship will be based on grade as of 1/1/24. The Peewee Fun Class is for third grade and under. There is no entry fee and the winner receives a trophy.

There is a $5 entry fee for Juniors (grades 3-5), Intermediate (grades 6-8), Seniors (grades 9-12) and Adults. Winners receive $25.

Classes will include:

Market Lambs, Wethers and Ewes shown together by weight. Supreme Market Lamb receives $100 and banner. Reserve Market Lamb receives $50.

Washington County Only Market Lambs—first place received $25, second place receives $15.

Wool and Hair Breeding Ewes and Rams includes Junior Lambs (born March or later), Lambs, Yearlings and Ages shown by breed. Supreme Ewes receive $100 and banner. Reserve Ewes receive $50. Supreme Rams receive $50 and banner. Reserve Rams receive $25. Supreme Flock receives banner.

RULES:
Premise ID required at entry.
Sheep (excluding wethers) must have a scrapie tag.
Entry fee is $12/head ($8 for Washington County Residents. No fee if in Washington County only market lamb class)
Sheep should not be unloaded until checked at the designated area on the west side of the Livestock Pavilion.
Wool market lambs must be slick shorn (no more that 1/2 inch of fleece at check-in).
Ewe lambs may not be shown in both market and breeding classes.
Breeding sheep must have registration papers to show in purebred classes. All other breeding sheep will show in Commercial Wool or Hair classes.
Farm Flocks include one ram (any age) and four ewes (Aged/Yearlings/Lambs in any combination.)
Exhibitors are responsible for bedding and clean-up.
Show committee makes final decisions and reserves the right to disqualify any exhibitor and/or their animal due to abusive, unethical, deceptive or fraudulent practices.

For more information contact Jason Webster (WCSA president) at 812-725-5700 or Purdue Extension/Washington County at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 812-883-4601.

The sponsors will not be held responsible for accidents.

This informal report by the Division of Entomology & Plant Pathology is a commentary on insects, diseases, and curiosities division staff encounter on a week-to-week basis. Comments and questions about this report are welcome and can be sent to your respective Inspector.

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Jared Spokowsky (Nursery Inspetor & Compliance Officer) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Still relatively slow with nursery inspections. I was able to find quite a few samples of azalea and rhododendron which we take for a Sudden Oak Death survey. Phytophthora ramorum is the causal agent for Sudden Oak Death which has been a problem in the Pacific Northwest for many years. Our division takes hundreds of samples each year looking for diseased material and we have intercepted it in previous years on nursery stock. The host list is extensive and includes many plants outside of the Quercus genus. For more information on SOD click this link.

I did manage to find a healthy population of oleander aphid on swamp milkweed in a greenhouse. There were quite a few natural predators present but the aphids had a pretty good head start on them.

Anyone looking for cover crop choices for feeding bees should take a look at yellow mustard. It is a winter annual which if planted in the fall will survive until the spring and is fast to bloom.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in brushing up on their honeybee disease ID I would suggest taking a look at this link. Meg Milbrath at Michigan State University has put together a good slideshow with a variety of disease photos in a quiz format. For anyone who doesn't get to see many diseased hives, this gives a pretty good idea of what you would need to be able to ID when trying to diagnose one. I’ll also be giving a disease ID presentation on May 11 at the Northeast Indiana Beekeepers Association field day at Wheeler’s Bees as well as the Purdue Field Day put on by the Beekeepers of Indiana at the Beck Agricultural Center on June 15 (registration deadline June 8). And if you think you have a disease issue feel free to call me, even if you know what it is. I need examples to help cross-train the rest of our staff so please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at 317-447-0084.

Kristy Stultz (Nursery Inspector & Compliance Officer) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Reminder: Aerial spraying for Lymantria dispar, now called spongy moth, is planned for the week of May 5 in part of North Manchester and a small area east of Berne in Adams County.

Treatments may be delayed due to weather.

During treatment an airplane flying 75-100 feet above the treetops will conduct treatment, starting at sunrise and continuing throughout the day as weather and flight schedules permit.

A second treatment will occur four to 10 days after the first.

People who live or work near the treatment areas might want to stay inside when the planes are flying and for about 30 minutes after treatments are complete. This gives the material time to settle out of the air and stick to treetops.

For more information on the treatments, call toll-free 1-866-NO-EXOTIC (663-9684), go to on.IN.gov/spongymoth or contact your county extension office. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @INdnrinvasive for continued updates.

Will Drews (Nursery Inspector & Compliance Officer) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Besides nursery inspections, our division assists with phytosanitary inspections in partnership with the USDA’s APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine staff. In my area, I assist mainly with log inspections and ensure the commodities are relatively pest free before leaving the country or, if not, make sure they will be treated beforehand. The images below show some of the insect pest activity I’ve spotted recently during log inspections.