A spruce aphid infestation in the Homer area has been causing land owners to worry that their trees are dying. Wednesday evening, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies hosted area Forester Hans Rinke, with the Alaska Division of Forestry, to address the issue.
“Spruce aphids have been around for, well, since the '80s in Southeast Alaska. It’s recently shown up here in Southcentral Alaska. In Southeast Alaska it’s led to reduced growth, but not outright death of the trees,” said Rinke.
Rinke says the aphids are sucking the sap out of conifer needles, which causes them to go from green to a rust color. It also causes early shedding of needles. Spruce aphids are causing problems with black spruce mostly on the southern peninsula, but can affect other conifers.
Scientists say the arrival of spruce aphids in Southcentral is due to the unusually warm weather these past few years.
Rinke says that even though trees may look dead, owners do not need to cut them down. There are a couple of methods to restore the tree’s natural foliage.
“Basically there are two techniques to use. One’s injection into your tree — injecting pesticides into your tree — and the other is a soil drenching technique. Basically, you’re applying pesticide into the base of your tree and those will be translocated into your tree,” said Rinke.
The injections won’t make the trees appear green right away, but they will kill the aphids and new growth will eventually appear. As for the trees, if you do decide harvest them, Rinke says the wood is still completely usable.
“The aphids don’t impact the structural integrity of the wood at all. So the wood will be fine to use for any traditional wood use,” said Rinke.
The Alaska Division of Forestry is making predictions for the spruce aphids based off of their behavior in the Southeast region of Alaska, and they do not expect widespread mortality of the trees on the southern peninsula, says Rinke.
“You may expect some number of the trees to die, a low percentage, but overall, if this follows what’s been seen in other parts other state, meaning Southeast, we shouldn’t see death of the majority of the trees that are impacted,” said Rinke.
Rinke says spruce aphid numbers are not expected to drop until the temperature does.