If you were reading Village14 last summer, you may recall I was looking for a Cerceris fumipennis wasp colony in Newton for Wasp Watchers. This is a biosurveillance project for early detection of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, which has recently reached New England, and quickly kills ash trees.
It’s the beginning of a new season, the wasps have emerged, and I’d still like to find a colony in Newton. So just to give you an incentive to keep your eyes open, if you are the first person to find a colony in Newton, OR the first to find one in my orbit of villages along the Mass Pike (Auburndale, West Newton, Newtonville, or Newton Corner) I will take you out to dinner at, let’s say Dunn Gaherin’s on the south side, or Tommy Doyle’s on the north side (or Chinese anywhere in Newton). For what to look for, read last August’s post.
Since last summer, when Cerceris nest monitoring detected EAB in Connecticut, in September EAB was detected in Dalton, MA (Berkshire County), where one was caught in a purple trap, another detection method. And this March, a report of unusual woodpecker activity on an ash tree in Concord, N.H. led to its discovery there, and infested trees have been found in many parts of that city.
The leaps over counties with no known infestations mean it probably arrived by people moving infested firewood, which could happen anywhere, so it’s worth keeping an eye on ash trees, too, for small D-shaped exit holes in the bark of ash trees. Ash trees have compound leaves like this picture, and opposite branching (like maples), not alternate branching.
And it’s not too late to be a Wasp Watcher yourself. You can email [email protected] if you’re interested. She will probably do a training in Carlisle later this week.
@Julia. Thanks for posting this. I will be on the lookout and will take Dunn Gaherin’s if we can split the bill. On a related note, I’m finding all kinds of peculiar vegetation in our backyard that I’ve never seen there before. There is also a strange kind of new grass (looks like it belongs in a wetlands) that’s infested a small part of our lawn for the last 5 or 6 years. Last fall, I dug it all out down to a depth of 6 or so inches, but it’s back again this year.
And, also for the past 5 or 6 years, a nearby section of that same lawn has been overrun (I don’t want to stay infested) with giant cicada wasps that stay from the first week in July through early August. These are docile and harmless insects, but they sure scare the daylights out of anyone who sees them for the first time. There seem to be fewer of them this year, so maybe they are moving on .
Bob, that’s funny you have those giant cicada killer wasps — I had never heard of them until last year, until I saw them at the Needham Cerceris wasp site I monitor, where they co-exist with the Cerceris, but I think sometimes bury the Cerceris nests with all the sand they kick out. As you said, they’re harmless (unless you’re a cicada), but rather distracting when you’re looking for small wasps, to see all these C-5s of wasps buzzing around.
All I know about invasive plants I’ve learned from Katherine Howard (who we now call the “walking encyclopedia” — thanks Jerry!) and Eric Olson, and that’s mostly about garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed. But here’s the Mass Audobon page on invasives:
http://www.massaudubon.org/Invasive_Species/plants.php
Could your new grass be Japanese stilt-grass?
Hi Julia. No, the leaves on the Japanese stilt-grass are too wide. I was bringing in the barrels this afternoon and saw that this grass (whatever it is) has spread to the berm.
The killer wasps have been nesting in the berm in front of my house for 3 consecutive summers. Just started to see them again this past week as they dig holes for their nests.
@Julia. I’ve looked at some other pictures of grasses, and I am not almost certain that it is indeed Japanese Switch Grass. Comes around the 1st of July and is gone by the end of August.
Meant to say “and I am now almost certain”
@Julia. I just finished collecting signatures for another term on the Newton Highlands Area Council. I saw at least 5 lawns that have become infested with Japanese Switch Grass on my street and on Carver Road that is just off Dickerman Road where I live. I also saw some on a berm and lawn at the intersection of Woodward and Chestnut streets. To the best of my recollection, none of this was there last year and I think I would have remembered it if it had been because the only clump I knew of was on my own lawn. Incidentally, that clump on my lawn doesn’t appear to have grown in the five of so years it has been there.
I’ve got to come see for myself what this stuff looks like!
Various updates:
1) I have found a small Cerceris colony in Waban, although it is not very active, and I haven’t found any ash trees in Cerceris flying range nearby. So I’m still interested in more colonies!
2) Wasp Watchers found EAB in a new county in Connecticut: http://www.eastoncourier.com/5366/tree-killing-beetle-found-by-fairfield-county-wasp/
And 3) I located what I think is the grass that Bob Burke is talking about on Dickerman Rd and took some photos. Both Eric Olson and Jenn Forman-Orth from MDAR (who knows plants as well as insects) say it’s a sedge, because of its stem’s triangular cross section. “Sedges have edges,” Jenn says. Apparently not invasive, just hard to get rid of. I also realized I have occasional bits of it in my own lawn, just never knew what it was.
@Julia. Yesterday I went up Morton Road on my way back from the Y and passed a lawn filled with sedge grass that I remember as having been newly seeded last autumn. Then it dawned on me that all the sedge grass in my neighborhood has also cropped up on lawns that were newly planted or reseeded in the last year or so. The spot of sedge on my own lawn is also restricted to a small portion I tried to reseed a few years back. Most of my lawn is old, strong and healthy and it has resisted the sedges. It doesn’t appear until well into July and the first serious frost wipes it out. Then, almost miraculously, the regular grass returns.
Just heard via Nathan Phillips, Mass DCR and Dept of Agricultural Resources just announced EAB has been found in North Andover: http://massnrc.org/pests/blog/2013/12/state-officials-confirm-emerald-ash-borer-detected-in-essex-county.html
I’m told it was reported by a member of the public. This time of year, you wouldn’t see beetles, so it was probably by spotting the D-shaped exit holes, or, as in Concord, NH, by noticing unusual woodpecker activity on ash trees.
A reminder of why you should be careful buying firewood — buy local, burn local.
Well, it’s 2016 now, but I just ran across a big colony, new it seems, at the beach on Crystal Lake near 51 Lake Avenue, Newton, MA 02459 (42.329824, -71.199618). Perhaps 100 holes in the dirt, wasps swarming yesterday. I could have sworn I saw a queen with red on her back slipping into one of the holes. Cheers jb
There appear to be cicada killers flying around at crystal lake newton ma (the section without a beach where swimming is prohibited.)