Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

I’d heard about Hemlock Wooly Adelgid killing the hemlocks in the Eastern US….and this morning I saw an infested tree at Belmont Manor and Historic Park. Aargh! Those white, cottony tuffs are the egg sacs.

They were not as thick everywhere on the trees. I thought the branch with the cones that I photographed was relatively free of them but now that I look at the image more closely – there are some tuffs here too.

On the plus side – I wondered if the lady bug on one of the branches was eating the insects or the eggs. The branch looks damaged (black) and there appear to be some hatched insects in the lower right corner of the image. But the lady bug looks covered the adelgid fuzz and goo.

(All images can be enlarged by clicking on the image.)