Spring treatment. This spring, Buddy Deal sprayed some trees with Safari + Dimethoate. Remember that Safari doesn't control twig aphids or mites, so the Dimethoate was for twig control. They used a high pressure sprayer, but put out the materials with a light spray intended for twig control and not for woolly control. They didn't soak the trees or the trunks. The rate was the high rate of 8 ounces per 100 gallons which is the high rate. The field is pictured here.
We went back about a month later, on May 20, and the woollies were still alive. But it had been rather dry, and we decided to go back in another month.
On Friday June 25, Bryan and I went back again. This time the woollies were all dead -- both on the trunk of the tree and on the buds and branches. We didn't find any live adelgids at all.
I'll keep an eye on these trees over the next 12 to 18 months to see if the woollies come back quickly or if the control is long lasting.
Seed orchard treatments. We've been putting out Safari for BWA control in seed orchard trees as well. On June 17, we treated trees at the Mount Rogers seed orchard at Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. This will be on one of the summer tours for the NCTA/NCCTA meeting in August.
We treated 3 trees with one of 5 treatments:
- Safari soil drench at the high rate of 4.2 oz/10 inches trunk diameter
- Safari soil drench at the low rate of 1.0 oz/10 inches trunk diameter
- Safari trunk spray at the high rate of 24 oz/gallon
- Safari trunk spray at the low rate of 12 oz/gallon
- Merit soil drench at the highish rate.
The trunk sprays are interesting. The material soaks up through the bark and travels through the tree. I sprayed with a backpack sprayer using a hollow cone nozzle. I sprayed from 5 foot high on the trunk down to the root flairs, wetting the entire trunk, but not to runoff. If the low rate works (the high rate would be way too expensive), it would be a quick easy way to control woollies in seed orchards or very large trees (greater than 12 foot). I will check the control before the NCTA meeting.
HWA treatments with Safari. Jerry Moody and I also treated hemlocks with these trunk sprays using either Safari or Merit. In this case we also added Pentrabark to increase penetration through the bark.
Elongate hemlock scale control. I also plan on treating some trees for elongate hemlock scale later this week. I'll compare the Safari to Dimethoate + Asana, Lorsban, and Movento.
I'll keep everyone posted of how well things work.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I thinks it's amazing how much care it takes into preserving all of the safaris. I have always used some safari insecticide in order to keep all of the bugs out and potentially spreading throughout.
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