Ridged Bunch Gall Wasp – Callirhytis gemmaria

Ridged Bunch Gall Wasp (Callirhytis gemmaria) Latin Name: Callirhytis gemmaria Common Name: Ridged Bunch Gall Wasp Hosts plants:  Bur oak Pin oaks and other oaks.  Damage insect caused by Ridged Bunch Gall Wasp: Ridged Bunch Gall Wasp has small, horn-shaped protrusions on the surface. A few can cause leaves to drop excessively or distort them, disrupting photosynthesis (the plant’s food production). Homeowners often dislike galls due to their ugly appearance. Description of Sap Suckers: Sapsuckers are a species of woodpecker found in North America. Sapsucker wells are immediately identifiable. With its chisel-like beak, the bird drills a dozen or more tiny holes in a horizontal line, each less than half an inch apart. Then it returns to suck up the sap that has trickled out again. The bird produces the second row of holes slightly above the first when the flow begins to wane, generally after a few days. A sapsucker at work is identified by a rectangular pattern of nicely spaced holes in tree bark. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is the most common. It lives in Canada’s and Alaska’s frigid evergreen woods. It migrates east of the Rockies and spends the winter in the Southeast United States.