The Pine Cone Detective...

Winter is a fabulous time to see the structure of plants, and some unusual adaptations that insects use for wintering. Have you ever seen pine cones growing on willows? Wait a minute, willows don't grow "pine" cones! No but, an insect can cause this look-a-like gall.




The pine cone gall on willow is not uncommon. Deep inside this structure, a little insect has created an inner sanctum. Not unlike the thickened bulbs on the stems of goldenrod, it is the winter home of a insect- just trying to get by.

Or this- the bag worm. Finding unusual cone-like structures on your arborvitae or blue spruce? Weirder yet, I have seen these "cones" on sycamore trees. So, they can't be a pine cone, right? These structures are created by an insect, which gathers leaf (needle) pieces and web them together for its winter home.

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We studied some of these in an eye-opening "Diagnostics" class, taught last night by Denise Ellsworth, at Master Gardener training. I tend to look at these problems with a bit of a different perspective though. Instead of wanting to know what to spray them with, or how to kill them, I always wonder... what eats them? Will these larva hatch out when the warblers are migrating? Will they provide food for a family of Phoebes? If you DON'T spray them with poison, what happens next?

Tent caterpillars- the bane of gardeners everywhere. Except me. I have watched a Baltimore Oriole feasting on these fuzz-balls during migration. And cuckoos are adapted to tolerate those stiff-bristled larva; could I deny them a meal?

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Once you tune into nature, your first reaction ceases to be: reach for the spray! Most of these insects will naturally occur and naturally be held in check in a balanced ecosystem. After all, web worms maybe considered unsightly, but they are unlikely to kill a a tree.

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Bag worms can defoliate pines and spruce to the point of no-recovery, since they do not regenerate needle like a deciduous tree. So if it is already a goner, why not see which interesting birds come by to feed?

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Live Curious. It is not just a Nat Geo saying, it is a whole way of life.