Thursday, April 23, 2009

Landscape - New Technologies for Pine Wilt Nematode

The following is information 0n new technologies for protection against pine wilt nematode in susceptible pines.

Pine wilt nematode (PWN) is the cause of pinewilt of Japanese black pine, Austrian pine and Scots pine in our region. We have known for years that there has been no effective control and reducing stress has been the best recommendation for reducing the incidence of disease. This recommendation has been pretty ineffective and we continue to see more tree death following drought periods. There has been some new research into the control of PWN with trunk injections of the insecticide abamectin which is also the active ingredient in Avid. This injection with the two labeled insecticide/nematicides Pinetect or Greyhound provides protection for up to 2 years for valuable landscape trees. This treatment appears to be very effective if applied before the long horned beetles that transmit the nematodes emerge in the spring. There are two applicator technologies that have been tested for pinewilt control with success (1) systemic tree injection tubes (STIT) now referred to as Pine Infusers and (2) the Wedgle injector (Arbor Systems Inc., Omaha, NE). Pines are especially difficult to inject because of the resin produced from wounding the trees. Any system that can successfully deliver the product to the pine should work.

Information from Bob Mulrooney, Extension Plant Pathologist, UD.

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