The Beetle did it on the Bayou with a Fungus!

  Yep!  The beetle did it in the swamp with a fungus!  This sounds a lot like a line from one of the games my kids played years ago only it was more like "Mrs. Peacock did it in the library with the candlestick!"   The whole game of "Clue" was centered around an unsolved murder and a number of possible suspects.  Here on the Bayou, my murder victims are the Swamp Bay Trees and the possible suspects are evil doers who are rarely seen.

  I was out meandering about the hillside in search for the freshly hatching Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers.  It is April which means these pests are hatching from egg sacs that have laid dormant under the sand since last fall.  The warm sunshine is incubating the eggs just enough to let the nasty critters hatch and crawl out in masses.  Left to mature to adulthood, these critters will devour anything edible in the yard.  They strip the garden, shrubs and even new growth on trees to fill their voracious appetites.  Since the newly hatched grasshoppers are relatively slow moving, it is far easier to smash the mounds at this stage rather than try to kill several million adults that can be pretty fast movers.  But...the grasshoppers were not my only disturbing find during my hike.  My Swamp Bay Trees are dying.  This makes me sad!  Not only will I not have a ready supply of fresh bay leaves for the kitchen pantry, the marsh line will seem quite bare without the pretty trees.

  After finding the second of dead trees, I knew something was amiss. Then a third and fourth meant big trouble.  After doing a bit of research, I have found that a small, inconspicuous beetle is to blame.  Not that the beetle is doing anything more than being a nuisance of a bug but it uses a weapon to carry out its foul deed. The thing carries a fungus that can and does infect the Bay Trees.  The Redbay Ambrosia Beetle is the murderer and the fungus, Laurel Wilt Fungus, is the weapon.  The beetle bores into the tree and transports the fungus to the inner portion under the bark.  Here, the fungus thrives and quickly kills the tree making it a hospitable dwelling for the beetle to reproduce.  The beetle knows what it is doing, does it well and gains by its nefarious act.  Bay trees of all sorts are under attack by this beetle and now my trees have fallen victim to the murderers.  My only hope is to search for a tiny sapling and see if I can raise it in the greenhouse where I can protect it from the beetles' attacks.  The story gets worse as this same beetle and its deadly fungus also attack Sassafras Trees. Acck!  No bay leaves nor any gumbo file`? This is no longer fun and games.  This serious business.

  The Bayou is seemingly a safe haven where I can live in peace but, here lately, I am finding numerous intruders that have crossed over into the area.  With these invaders, nothing is safe.  My Bayou is about to change and not in a good way.  Sad.....so very sad.