If you have taken a walk on the Blue hill Coach road lately you may have noticed something is happening to all of our beech trees. It seems we are a victim of the beech leaf-mining weevil (Orchestes fagi). This little insect is native to, and widespread across Europe and has now established itself in Nova Scotia. This new insect problem (Beech Leaf Mining Weevil) is only compounding the health problems for our native beech forests.

American beech was once a major part of our hardwood forests in Nova Scotia. But In the late 1800’s an invasive insect/fungus complex was accidentally introduced to North America though Halifax. The insect (Cryptococcus fagisuga and disease Neonectria faginata causes cankering on the bark of beech trees and eventually leads to stunted growth and death. It is not clear if this is a death sentence for our native beech.

If you wish to learn more about this unwanted traveller here is a link.
https://www.invasiveinsects.ca/blmw/blmw.html