SP290-U Nantucket Pine Tip Moth

The Nantucket pine tip moth, Rhyacionia frustrana (Comstock), is a pest of pines in the Eastern, Central and Southern states. Host trees attacked include Scotch, Austrian, Virginia, red, loblolly and shortleaf pines. Longleaf, slash and eastern white pines are rarely attacked.

During recent years, the Nantucket pine tip moth has become an increasingly destructive and abundant pest because of the increase in acreage of pine plantations and seed orchards. Larvae of this moth kill and deform shoots of infested trees. This damage results in a reduction in height, forking or crooking of main stems and, occasionally, death of the tree. This insect commonly infests trees less than 15 feet in height, with the most severe damage occurring in young plantations.