Sirex woodwasp (Sirex noctilio).
Photographer: MichaellbbeckerThe sirex woodwasp (Sirex noctilio) arrives in the United States in pallets of wood from infested trees.
By 2014, sirex woodwasp had been found in New York and Pennsylvania, and scattered areas in Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Vermont1. The first woodwasp was found in Indiana in 20022. It is considered a particular threat to plantations of pines in the southeastern United States.
When laying their eggs, female sirex woodwasps inject a fungus and irritating mucus into weakened or stressed pine trees. The fungus feeds their larvae, and further weakens the tree. In other countries where it is an invasive pest, the woodwasp often attacks loblolly trees on pine plantations.
Symptoms include a lightening or yellowing of the tree crown (sometimes reddish-brown), beads or streams of resin dripping from tiny holes in the bark, larvae tunnel in the wood, and exit holes.3