I didn't know what an ash splint was. I'd guess they are best obtained from a live-cut tree that is still "green"? Mine would all be pretty dry by now.
A different one, but the spotted lanternfly finally found my grapes. I'm at a total loss for how to protect them. The local university is studying oils and sprays, but they don't have any guidance yet.
The wheel bug is the first predator to realize the lantern fly is a tasty morsel. I hope we can continue coaching other insects to eat the invasives.
In my area we've had the Spotted lanternfly for more than 5 years now, maybe closer to 10. In the first year or two they could be seen in huge numbers. Since then they've waned off considerably. Like last year I don't recall seeing many at all. This summer they are back but still nothing compared to that initial wave. I've seen birds eating them, leaving lots of disembodied red wings in my backyard. Feels like they will reach some equilibrium stable population.
I've also recently learned about Sudden Oak Death, a fungus which is ravaging forests in California and Oregon. Evidently it is unknown where it came from.
Chestnut is being rescued by a two-pronged approach using hybridization (with a resistant asian species, followed by backcrosses to get something that is mostly American Chestnut) and genetic engineering (introducing a wheat gene that destroys oxalate, which the fungus uses to kill tissue.)
I wonder, does Asia and Europe have nearly as many problems with North American invasive plants / pests / diseases as North America does with its non-natives?
Being from the US, I don't recall any such stories in the news.
They (the European version at least) also have a symbiotic relationship with Trumpet of the Dead. There's an ancient forest near me with beach trees and you find the black trumpets in areas where there's several very old and giant beach trees in proximity.
I was watching Star Wars recently and a little voice in the back of my head kept freaking out about the lack of biosecurity -- "sure let's just tromp directly from this planet to another one without even changing our shoes!"
I'm guessing by the time of these stories the ecosystems have already been hopelessly corrupted. This could be especially catastrophic when some alien biochemistry that uses (say) dioxins as building blocks gets introduced. It makes all the "let's blow up planets" more understandable, I suppose.
