NCDA&CS declares external quarantine for Sirex wood wasp

North Carolina has established an external quarantine for the European wood wasp Sirex noctilio for the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Vermont.

This external quarantine is needed to prevent the potential spread of the European wood wasp into North Carolina.

The quarantine also will apply to other states found to be infested with European wood wasp. No federal quarantine for this wood wasp is currently in place.

“The quarantine means that certain trees, nursery stock and wood products from these four states must be inspected and accompanied by a certificate or permit from the state of origin if they are moved into North Carolina,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

The quarantine affects the following articles:

• Pine wood packaging materials, pine pallets and loose wood packing material made of pine, and non-manufactured pine wood articles used in the repair and re-manufacture of wood packaging material;
• Pine nursery stock with trunks 4 inches or larger in diameter, measured at the soil line;
• Dug, balled and burlapped pine Christmas trees with trunks 4 inches or larger in diameter, as measured at the soil line;
• Cut pine Christmas trees collected from the wild or taken from an established landscape planting;
• Pine firewood;
• Any of the following pine items with components greater than 1 inch in thickness in any two dimensions: wood shavings, wood chips, mulch, wood millings and fines, wood pellet components, wood residue, wood scraps, wood slabs and wood waste;
• Pine logs, log-home components, kit homes, lumber, log furniture, decorative items, sawn wood, round wood, non-manufactured wood products;
• Pine pulpwood with components greater than 1 inch in thickness in any two dimensions;
• Any other products or articles that are determined by an inspector to present a hazard of spreading this wood wasp.

Sirex is considered a secondary pest in its native range of Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but it has the potential to cause a significant loss of pine trees in areas where it is introduced and not controlled by native predators and parasites.