Unusual damage from dogwood sawfly
Occasionally we run across something that just seems too weird to be true, but it is. This Fall Rainbow Pest Experts, our company that provides pest control services for residential and commercial properties, received calls about caterpillars burrowing into decks and siding. A few clients sent us some pictures that looked like the boring caterpillars were actually plant feeding sawflies.
Sawfly larvae look like caterpillars and can defoliate the trees they are on, but are not typically wood borers. We sent the pictures in to Jeff Hahn at the University of Minnesota and he said they looked like dogwood sawflies. Since it was completely new to us we asked a few other experts at the University of Massachusetts, Purdue University, Oregon State University and Ohio State University and they all supported the diagnosis. We must point out that several of our University colleagues had even observed this phenomenon personally.
Dogwood sawfly, after feeding on the foliage of dogwood, seeks shelter to overwinter. In nature it finds decaying logs to crawl into where they create a hibernating chamber in which they pupate. Unfortunately, in urban areas where rotting logs are scarce, they are finding other places to chew into and hibernate; including siding, decks and any other location where soft wood is available for them to chew into and create their hibernacula.
The best plan for managing the problem is to replace the decaying wood. But, if that’s not an option right now, Rainbow Pest Experts have treatments that will reduce the populations of these bugs. Just give us a call.
