November 3, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Oregon
Old pest
makes a return
to Northwest
fruit, nut trees
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Invasive, crop-damaging
insects such as Spotted Wing
Drosophila, Japanese Beetles
and Brown Marmorated Stink
Bugs cause alarm and get re-
search attention, but the latest
problem bug to emerge is a
home-grown pest that hasn’t
been a factor for decades.
Researchers in Oregon and
Washington say they’re hearing
reports of damage from Pacif-
ic Flatheaded Borers, a beetle
that seeks out weakened plants
and can kill young fruit and nut
trees. Oregon State Universi-
ty staff recently found several
damaged trees in its new cider
apple nursery beds, which were
planted as a research response
to the increas-
ing popularity
of hard cider
drinks.
Nik Wiman,
an assistant pro-
fessor and or-
chard specialist
Pacific
with OSU, said Flatheaded
he knows of a
Borer
young commer-
cial cherry orchard that was hit
hard and said the borers are a
threat to “all those brand new
hazelnut trees out there.”
The damage to trees is
caused by the beetle larvae,
which bore into trees and chew
“galleries” or “mines” between
the bark and wood. They can
“girdle” and kill a young tree
by chewing their way all the
way around it.
Wiman and others said bor-
ers are a difficult pest to work
with because there are no traps
or pheromones developed to
attract them. Spraying for them
is problematic because they
spend much of their life shel-
tered under bark. They begin to
emerge in late spring, but there
doesn’t seem to be a regular
schedule for that.
To that end, Wiman is col-
lecting infected wood from
damaged trees, the idea being
to rear larvae under controlled
conditions and learn more
about when adult beetles fly.
“We want to get an emergence
curve,” he said. “We want a
predictive model.”
Flatheaded borers are not
a new pest. Scientific litera-
ture on the borer dates to the
1930s or 1940s, but it hasn’t
been studied for decades, said
Betsy Beers, a professor and
entomologist at Washington
State University’s Tree Fruit
Research and Extension Center
in Wenatchee.
“We’ve seen so little of it
here in Washington, I think
most entomologists have for-
gotten about it,” Beers said.
“The ones I saw a couple of
years ago were the first ones I’d
seen in my professional career.”
In that case, damage reports
surfaced from tree nurseries in
British Columbia. Washington
State obtained borer larvae and
reared them as a research proj-
ect.
An OSU Extension publi-
cation from 1982 said the bor-
ing larvae almost always begin
their work on the sunny side
of a tree, and may bore 1 to 2
inches deep. If they tunnel all
the way around, they can kill
the tree or infested branches.
Growers should look for dark-
ened areas of bark and fine bits
of sawdust low on the tree.
Adult borers are up to a
half-inch long, with metallic
copper-colored spots on their
wings, according to the OSU
publication.
The adults fly for three to
five weeks and make a buzzing
sound when flying, according
to the publication. “They are
active insects, and will quick-
ly conceal themselves or fly
away when approached. Being
sunlovers, they are inactive and
rarely seen on cloudy days,” it
said.
James LaBonte, an ento-
mologist with the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture, said
Flatheaded Borers and similar
pests take advantage of trees
damaged by equipment or
weakened by sunburn, drought
or even excess water. The act
of planting can stress young
trees as roots are disrupted, he
said.
ODFW will collar coastal cougars
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon’s cougar population is
growing to the point that the big cats
are dispersing into new territory in the
state’s Central Coast Range.
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife is hearing of more sightings
and damage complaints along the
coast, and will take a closer look at the
problem by putting tracking collars on
10 adult cougars this fall.
The work will take place in the Al-
sea Wildlife Management Unit, which
includes parts of Benton and Lincoln
counties. Wildlife biologists have
studied cougar home ranges, popula-
EO Media Group File
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
biologists are studying the growing cougar
population in Benton and Lincoln counties.
tion and diet in the Cascade Mountains
and in Eastern Oregon, but not in the
Coast Range.
Oregon has approximately 6,400
cougars, perhaps 40 to 50 times the
number of wolves in the state. An es-
timated 950 cougars live in ODFW’s
Coast and North Cascades Zone,
which includes the Alsea study area.
Department biologists will work
with volunteer trackers who have
hounds and will tree cougars in the
study area. They’ll be darted, immo-
bilized and fitted with GPS tracking
collars. Location data will be used
calculate the cougars’ home range and
habitat selection.
Researchers also will use specially
trained dogs to find cougar scat, which
will be analyzed for diet information,
and to estimate the cougar population
size and density. Cougars primarily eat
deer, elk and small mammals in the
wild, but sometimes follow prey into
developed areas. A recent Facebook
post from a La Grande, Ore., resident
said cougars had killed two deer in a
yard across the street from her house.
ODFW spokeswoman Michelle
Dennehy said cougar mortality num-
bers provide a reading on human-cou-
gar conflict. She said 17 cougars were
killed in the Alsea unit — the study
area — in 2008. The number jumped
to 35 in 2016 and 27 have been killed
so far this year. The 2016 mortality fig-
ure includes 16 cougars killed for live-
stock depredation; the rest were shot
by hunters or hit by vehicles.
Fire destroys barn belonging to Oregon Farm Bureau president
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
BORING, Ore. — A fire that destroyed
a barn on the property of Oregon Farm
Bureau President Barry Bushue may have
been started by an electrical problem, but a
fire inspector could not pinpoint the cause
because the building was a complete loss.
Clackamas Fire District #1 spokesman
Steve Hoffeditz said the cause will be listed
as “undetermined.” The district estimated
damage from the Oct. 26 fire at $40,000 to
the building and $40,000 to the contents,
which included equipment.
A passer-by saw the fire at Bushue
Family Farm and reported it at 1:30 a.m.,
about the time the property owner awoke
and did the same. Clackamas Fire, aided
by firefighters from nearby Gresham, Ore.,
was able to confine the fire to the barn. No
one was injured; the family was able to
release goats that were in a corral next to
the barn.
Bushue Family Farm grows berries
and vegetables and at this time of year
also has a pumpkin patch and hosts tours
for schoolchildren. The farm resumed
tours despite the fire. Barry Bushue could
not be reached for comment.
Courtesy of Clackamas Fire District #1
Firefighters responded to an early morning barn fire at Bushue Family Farm
in Boring, Ore. The fire destroyed the barn and shop equipment inside. The
property is owned by Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau.
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