With Victoria Day weekend upon us, thousands of Canadians are finally getting back to nature at their cabins, camps, cottages, resorts and campgrounds.
One of the first things you see at Parks Ontario, Parks Canada and private campgrounds are postings warning people not to bring their own firewood.
The dangers of transporting destructive insects to new habitats via travel from outside their native area are well known.
Although it may seem harmless to bring logs for the campfire, this simple act can be extremely detrimental to the forest around you.
At Sault Ste. Marie's Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Research Scientist Dr. Amanda Roe is part of a team of Natural Resources Canada Entomologists with the Canadian Forest Service (CFS), who monitor the progress of forest pests.
Dr. Roe says the common way for forest pests to spread is through people moving infested materials such as firewood, branches, logs, or other wood.
Insects often lay their tiny eggs underneath the bark making it virtually impossible to spot pests on wood with the naked and untrained eye.
Once a pest establishes in a new area it can be difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate. Forest pests cause significant damage to native trees and plants that lack defences against these invaders.
They can slow growth or even kill trees having a significant impact on forest health as well as recreation and tourism industries.
We asked Dr. Roe which forest pests are of concern around Elliot Lake, Sudbury and area, this year.
"For the pests that seem to be on the rise this year, we see various versions of the budworm. It is an indigenous pest, that is, native in our forests but they go through cycles just like the forest tent caterpillar does. They have years where they're high and years where they're low," Roe said.
"In fact, the jack pine and spruce budworms have long periods, really long gaps between their outbreaks. We just happen to be coming into one of those periods where their numbers are going to go high.
ElliotLakeToday: How do these bugs behave? When do the eggs hatch in spring? When do the caterpillars do their damage? How fast can budworms, for example, damage trees?
Dr. Roe: The jack pine budworm feeds on jack pine and it'll feed on the flowers and then the needles. It will cause losses of needles and you can see it because it'll start to turn brown and the needles disappear on the tips of the tree.
The spruce budworm is the one that I think people are going are to start noticing this year and it's going to continue for a while.
We have a big gap in outbreaks like 30 to 40 years in between, but when a budworm outbreak starts, it continues for a long time and it can lead to tree death and mortality.
The bugs will attack trees year after year and the outbreaks can last 15 to 20 years. Now we're in a year when it is going to be starting. We noticed the increase last year, because we know what we're looking for.
I think the general public are going to star noticing it now. You'll start to notice those nice juicy shoots on trees start to get eaten. They will die back and that's responsible for those dead needles.
What will happen is they will come back to eat the tree year after year. The tree will start to suffer and eventually die.
ElliotLakeToday: Is there anything positive that can be said about the budworm and other pests?
Dr. Roe: The trees themselves, the forests, are adapting to having them in there and they are part of a process of disturbance that leads to forest renewal.
Because as the trees are lost, then you have regeneration and new trees come in their place, but that is a long process. People value their trees year after year, rather than in a 100-year process.
ElliotLakeToday:. What natural substances or applications can be used against the tree attacking pests?
Dr. Roe: The province uses BTK or (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) the Latin name of the microbe that is used to spray on trees. It is the microbe that will specifically kill the spruce budworm and that is what is used to protect trees. When they are caterpillars they eat the foliage that has the spray on them and it kills them.
People can actually buy it at garden centres and you can spray it on your trees. It gets into their guts and causes them go turn to mush and die.
Emerald ash borer
Another example of a tree killer is the emerald ash borer. It's life cycle demonstrates how fast invasive pests can spread and be harmful to their environment after people transport them by bringing wood from one place to the other.
The shiny green insect from Asia which has already killed millions of Ash trees in Canada, doesn't move very far on it's own, less than 2 km per year on average.
A truckload of firewood infested with emerald ash borer, on the other hand, can be moved hundreds of kilometres in a single day. With the help of humans, Emerald ash borer has spread to 35 U.S. states and from Ontario to Nova Scotia in Canada, since it was first detected in the Detroit-Windsor area in 2002.
Emerald ash borer is extremely destructive and kills up to 99 per cent of ash trees within eight to 10 years of its arrival in an area. Reducing the establishment, spread and damage of undesirable insects and diseases is part of the forest pest researches by CFS researchers.
Gypsy moth
In southern and central Ontario, the gypsy moth has been a periodic problem for a number of years. Here in the north, Dr. Roe predicts only small pockets of the insects for the most part in 2021.
They aren't expected to be dominant in this part and most of the province with the exception of the Ottawa Valley in eastern Ontario. They are expected to be very high in the Ottawa area this year.
They are just starting to wake up now. Their little black feathered caterpillars grow quickly and eat a lot of leaves on all sorts of trees. The most common in this area are birch, maple and oak, if you see any.
For more information on these and other forest pests, click here
Of special interest this year in the insect world is the Cicada (pron. Shih-cay'-dah). Dr. Roe calls this year's crop of the large leathery winged insects "Brood X Cicada".
They spend seventeen years burrowed in the soil where they consume tree roots. Other than that they are not dangerous to our forests.
On the seventeen year, which is 2021, they emerge, climb to the tops of trees and sing. Cicada are black and yellow and have big red eyes. They are very, very loud.
Scientists have no idea how the insects keep track of time; or, why all different types of Cicada's have life cycles which conform to prime numbers only.
Most of the "Brood X" insects are to be seen this summer in southern Canada and in the U.S.