Blue spruce and Norway spruce are popular landscape plants in Kentucky. However, many factors can cause spruce trees to cast (shed) needles. Casting may be the result of environmental stresses (heavy soil, poor drainage) or fungal diseases. In Kentucky, Rhizosphaera…

The first report of Japanese beetle emergence was just received from Scott County. Recent rains across much of the state have loosened hardened soils, so a few warm, sunny days will prompt additional beetle emergence.   Individual Japanese beetles live about…

Rhizosphaera needle cast is often to blame for brown or thin spruce in the landscape. In Kentucky, Rhizosphaera needle cast is the most common disease of spruce; it also affects some pine species. This disease causes needle drop on lower…

The term anthracnose refers to the dark blotching (necrotic) symptom common to these diseases.  When expanding leaves are affected, leaf distortion frequently results (Figure 1). Defoliation (leaf drop) often occurs during severe infections. The disease is generally not fatal, and…

Maple bladder galls occur on silver and red maples. These hollow rounded growths are attached to upper leaf surfaces by narrow stems. Initially, they are green but change color and darken as they mature. Heavily infested leaves may “cup” and drop…

The spotted lanternfly has joined the increasingly long list of invasive species that have become established in the U.S. First detected in Pennsylvania in 2014, the known infested area includes several counties in the southeastern corner of that state (map). …