Thanks to MamaDearest for pointing to this article:
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http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/woodwasp.ssl.html
FOR RELEASE: May 12, 2005
Media contact: Press Relations
Phone: (607) 255-6074
E-Mail: pressoffice@cornell.?edu
"Alien woodwasp that could threaten nation's pine trees found in Fulton" County, N.Y., by Cornell researcher
By Susan S. Lang
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "ITHACA, N.Y. -- Despite dozens of interceptions at U.S. ports, a public enemy has infiltrated the nation's borders. Taken captive in Fulton County, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell University expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in the eastern United States.
The discovery of a single specimen of Sirex noctilio Fabricius, an Old World woodwasp, raises red flags across the nation because the invasive insect species has devastated up to 80 percent of pine trees in areas of New Zealand, Australia, South America and South Africa. If established in the United States, it would threaten pines coast-to-coast, particularly in the pine-dense states in the Southeast. One target would be loblolly pines in Georgia."
This insect is the reason that New Zealand has imported Monterey Pines from California. They seem to be resistant to this particular bug. (Not resistant to much of anything else) Loblolly pines thrive in the insect infested Mississippi valley, where thousands of species of beetles and flies that harm other pines also live. They might not be so vulnerable.