{"id":1632,"date":"2026-09-18T19:14:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/?page_id=1632"},"modified":"2026-09-18T19:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:54:09","slug":"ambrosia-beetles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambrosia Beetles"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Ambrosia Beetles (<em>Curculionidae: Scolytinae<\/em>)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ambrosia beetles are wood-boring insects that belong to the bark beetle subfamily. Unlike other bark beetles or wood-borers that feed on the inner bark or wood tissues, ambrosia beetles bore directly into the xylem to construct gallery tunnels where they then cultivate symbiont &#8220;ambrosia&#8221; fungi. The beetles and their larvae feed on this fungi rather than the wood itself.<\/p>\n<p>The fungal inoculation process that these beetles use often introduces pathogens into the tree&#8217;s vascular system (such as <em>Raffaelea\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0<em>Fusarium<\/em> fungal species), that lead to wilting, dieback, and tree mortality. Many ambrosia species are attracted to ethanol that is emitted by stressed, flood-damaged, or freeze-injured landscape trees or nursery stock.<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"mceTemp\"><strong>Quarantine and Management Policies<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Interstate movement of infested nursery stock, timber, and untreated firewood is strictly regulated.<\/li>\n<li>Movement of all <em>Lauraceae<\/em> host plants (Sassafras, Spicebush, Redbay, Avocado) out of infested regions is restricted under federal and state agricultural quarantines due to the danger of <em>Xyleborus glabratus<\/em> and <em>Raffaelea lauricola\u00a0<\/em>infections.<\/li>\n<li>Commercial nursery stock shipped interstate must come from certified pest-free facilities inspected by state Departments of Agriculture (e.g., NJDA, USDA-APHIS).\n<ul>\n<li>Infested blocks must be immediately quarantined.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Destroy trees exhibiting active toothpick frass or gallery wood-staining. They cannot be saved with insecticides and can encourage further infestations.<\/li>\n<li>If chipping infested woody material, process the pieces smaller than 1 in x 1 in to kill any surviving larvae and adults inside the wood. Spray woodchips with a contact insecticide when chipping during peak flight periods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5 class=\"mceTemp\"><strong>Diagnostic and Scouting Guidelines<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Monitor Emergence:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Spring emergence begins rapidly when maximum daily temperatures consistently exceed 68-70F (100-250 GDD). Monitor forecasts closely during early spring leaf-out.<\/li>\n<li>Hang funnel traps, clear sticky panels, or home-made soda bottle traps baited with 70-95% ethanol.\n<ul>\n<li>Position traps 2-3 off the ground along wooded field edges, brush lines, and nursery blocks. Check traps weekly starting in early March to pinpoint exact flight timing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Focus scouting on the lower 2-3 feet of the tree trunks, graft unions, and major scaffold branches.<\/li>\n<li>Look for thin frass &#8220;toothpicks,&#8221; or 1-2 cm long cylinders of packed sawdust extending out from stem entry holes.\n<ul>\n<li>Rain or overhead irrigation can wash these away, leaving only 1mm circular holes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Look for weeping sap, water-soaked bark staining, or localized cambial dieback that surrounds the entry pinholes.<\/li>\n<li>Cut into affected stems to look for brownish-black fungal staining around the larval galleries in the xylem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Identify Weak Plants and Risk:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Protective scouting and early identification is crucial for detection and management of ambrosia beetles because systemic insecticides are ineffective after the beetles enter the wood.<\/li>\n<li>Take special care of plants to avoid plant stress. Pay close attention to plants when they are stressed, flooded, frost-injured, or root-bound, as these plants produce ethanol aerosols that attract colonizing female beetles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Submit Samples<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are unable to identify an insect, submit samples to the <strong>Rutgers Plant Diagnostic Laboratory<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"40\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559683&quot;:0,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Website:<\/span><\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/njaes.rutgers.edu\/plant-diagnostic-lab\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Rutgers Plant Diagnostic Lab<\/span><\/a> <span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"40\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559683&quot;:0,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Location:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Ralph Geiger Center, CVI, 20 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"40\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559683&quot;:0,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Contact:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> 848-932-9140 | <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=mailto%3Aplant-clinic%40njaes.rutgers.edu\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">plant-clinic@njaes.rutgers.edu<\/span><\/a><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"40\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559683&quot;:0,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambrosia Beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) Ambrosia beetles are wood-boring insects that belong to the bark beetle subfamily. Unlike other bark beetles or wood-borers that feed on the inner bark or wood &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/\" class=\"\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3407,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1632","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ambrosia Beetles - Nursery IPM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ambrosia Beetles - Nursery IPM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ambrosia Beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) Ambrosia beetles are wood-boring insects that belong to the bark beetle subfamily. 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Unlike other bark beetles or wood-borers that feed on the inner bark or wood &hellip; Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/","og_site_name":"Nursery IPM","article_modified_time":"2026-09-18T19:54:09+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/","name":"Ambrosia Beetles - Nursery IPM","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-09-18T19:14:55+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-18T19:54:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/ambrosia-beetles\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ambrosia Beetles"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/","name":"Nursery IPM","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1638,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1632\/revisions\/1638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/nursery-ipm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}