AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Forest Service has found a new insect invader that targets hemlocks as another pest works its way up the coast.
Forest service entomologists say they’ve found a population of elongate hemlock scale at Kittery Point. The discovery marks the first time it has been found in a natural setting of hemlocks. Previously they’ve been found only in an ornamental landscape setting.
Already, another invader, the hemlock woolly adelgid, has been found in Maine, spreading up the coast from South Portland to Bristol.
Maine Forest Service state entomologist Dave Struble says one of the invaders is bad enough. He says the two of them together is a “recipe to accelerate tree decline and mortality.”