mdrocco1
Who is Snacking in the Bark
This is a picture of a basketball sized chunk of bark, that has recently fallen from a large stump in my back yard. I live in Holly Ridge, NC and a good portion of my backyard is considered wetlands. When I purchased this home, many trees were dead and stumps were scattered across the wetland area. I am not certain, but due to the resemblance to the other trees in the area, the bark seems to be from a fallen pine tree. I found this piece of bark interesting because whatever creature made these holes is no longer a resident in or around the old stump. I also found it interesting that were a few holes in the stump itself compared to the bark. My first thought that the culprit of these bark bores were termites. Upon further investigating, I found that there may be other borers in my backyard. According to a brief article provided by the University of Wisconsin-Extension on Identification of wood-destroying insects, the likely suspects could be either carpenter ants, subterranean termites, bark beetles or some wood boring insect providing a safe home for its larvae. Carpenter ants could be responsible; however, carpenter ants establish nests and none were noted in the stump after sawing the stump into sections. Subterranean termites would nest in the soil near the stump, but would have constructed tunnels inside the stump. I did not see much evidence of tunnel making inside the sawed stump sections. Bark beetles (or some other type of wood boring beetle) is what I believe created the cavities in this picture because of the concentration of latitude and longitude tunnels along with the small number of holes left in the stump. I believe this little critter was primarily interested in the bark of the dead tree and not the actual tree itself. It is also noted that bark beetle will lay dormant until warm weather is present, which could explain the absence of insects during the time of the photo. Photo was taken 17 May 2018 just before 06:00 p.m. EST. #UNCW #ecology #bio366 #Su2018 #image1
Soruce: learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/A3093.pdf
Who is Snacking in the Bark
This is a picture of a basketball sized chunk of bark, that has recently fallen from a large stump in my back yard. I live in Holly Ridge, NC and a good portion of my backyard is considered wetlands. When I purchased this home, many trees were dead and stumps were scattered across the wetland area. I am not certain, but due to the resemblance to the other trees in the area, the bark seems to be from a fallen pine tree. I found this piece of bark interesting because whatever creature made these holes is no longer a resident in or around the old stump. I also found it interesting that were a few holes in the stump itself compared to the bark. My first thought that the culprit of these bark bores were termites. Upon further investigating, I found that there may be other borers in my backyard. According to a brief article provided by the University of Wisconsin-Extension on Identification of wood-destroying insects, the likely suspects could be either carpenter ants, subterranean termites, bark beetles or some wood boring insect providing a safe home for its larvae. Carpenter ants could be responsible; however, carpenter ants establish nests and none were noted in the stump after sawing the stump into sections. Subterranean termites would nest in the soil near the stump, but would have constructed tunnels inside the stump. I did not see much evidence of tunnel making inside the sawed stump sections. Bark beetles (or some other type of wood boring beetle) is what I believe created the cavities in this picture because of the concentration of latitude and longitude tunnels along with the small number of holes left in the stump. I believe this little critter was primarily interested in the bark of the dead tree and not the actual tree itself. It is also noted that bark beetle will lay dormant until warm weather is present, which could explain the absence of insects during the time of the photo. Photo was taken 17 May 2018 just before 06:00 p.m. EST. #UNCW #ecology #bio366 #Su2018 #image1
Soruce: learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/A3093.pdf