Chestnut gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus)

[Koala]

Have you ever dealt with it?

It's almost nine years since it was found in Italy for the first time. Now it can be found all over the country, more or less. Went to a customer last week who has four mature chestnut trees full of these galls. Chemicals don't work, thinking of trying with an heavy pruning to remove all the galls (before females start to fly).....in Japan Himenoptera were working good...not so easy available here.

Got no pictures of those trees, I post some pics from the web.

 

[Burnham]

Another battle lost to invasive species, a story that repeats over and over, I fear.

 

[SkwerI]

We have those in our oaks here as well. They are in both of my live oaks out front and have been for about 5-6 years now.
The good news is that they mostly hit the small interior growth or the tips of limbs, all of which are expendable and not real harmful for long term growth. The sprouts usually die past the gall and tree growth is directed elsewhere so the galls usually don't become a weak spot in a main limb. I've seen some really bad ones though where they pretty much wiped out some particular trees. I prune the galls out of my trees whenever I see them using a polesaw or pole pruners.

 

[RopeArmour]

Collect all the insects as much as possible. Place in mixer ill they are mashed up real good. bit soap and slap it all over the tree.
Encourage spread of parasites, disease and deters any others.

 

[Burnham]

Really?

 

[Old Monkey]

My brother used to catch mosquitos live, pluck their winds off end set them on his shoulder as a deterrent to other mosquitos. I'm not sure that worked either.

 

[RopeArmour]

Works well. Scale, aphids , plant bugs, hoppers etc as long as you can catch them. Set pheromone traps and do not trash the bugs, spread all their juicy parts and parasites. Very nice holistic approach to insect control well not so nice for da bug. Hand squish and leave all the bug gunk on the stem and you will see a decrease in population.
Some insects can have toxic effect to tender plant parts like growing tips and young leaves.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Redo after rain?

 

[RopeArmour]

Excellent point.

 

[Koala]

Collect all the insects as much as possible. Place in mixer ill they are mashed up real good. bit soap and slap it all over the tree.
Encourage spread of parasites, disease and deters any others.

Those plants are not that small...how many insects should I collect???....I mean ...suppose I need 100 lt of water (just wondering) to treat all the plants , how many kg of insects should I mix ???

 

[Koala]

Redo after rain?

Sorry again for my bad understanding of english terms...with redo you mean reduction, pruning or anything else?...if it so that's what I was thinking to do...

hope I can go back there soon and take some pics....they are pretty full of those galls.

 

[Koala]

We have those in our oaks here as well. They are in both of my live oaks out front and have been for about 5-6 years now.
The good news is that they mostly hit the small interior growth or the tips of limbs, all of which are expendable and not real harmful for long term growth. The sprouts usually die past the gall and tree growth is directed elsewhere so the galls usually don't become a weak spot in a main limb. I've seen some really bad ones though where they pretty much wiped out some particular trees. I prune the galls out of my trees whenever I see them using a polesaw or pole pruners.

Thanks for the info Skwerl.

 

[Burnham]

Sorry again for my bad understanding of english terms...with redo you mean reduction, pruning or anything else?...if it so that's what I was thinking to do...

hope I can go back there soon and take some pics....they are pretty full of those galls.

"Redo" would mean that after a rain, one should apply the mixture to the plants again...as in "do it again".

 

[Koala]

thanks Burnham....after a good day of work is not so easy sitting down and starting reading in english... takes a little bit of effort and concentration... hope you have patience

 

[Burnham]

You're doing wonderfully at it, not to worry!