Wool Sower Galls

While hiking in the J. Maynard Municipal Forest the last weekend in June, Wayne spotted what looked to be the kind of white pom poms that I used make and tie to my ice skate laces and zipper pulls. Several of them  were  hanging from a Swamp Oak sapling; and though I didn't know what they were I had to investigate and worry about contact irritations later should they arise. With this frequent abandonment of good sense, I am as surprised as anyone that I have yet to suffer poison oak, sumac or ivy this season. Perhaps it has been the unusually dry spring that has saved me.

A quick search on the internet and I found that they are encased wasp grubs that form leaf galls called Wool Sower Galls. The grubs are encased in a hard woody protective growth that I was unable to pull apart with my fingers. I couldn't find the purpose for the Horton Hears a Who fluff on the outside of the gall and think (hope really) it could relate that old physics assignment to build a case that keeps an egg from breaking when dropped from the school's roof. I truly hope that's it because it would make them almost magical instead of just a home for a parasite.

If you click on this NC State Extension link (highlighted words), you will see pictures of the wasp grub and an adult wasp. Under the heading,  "Residential Suggestions" the extension discuses using pesticides; but another site UK Entomology, mentions that in most circumstances they are not a threat to  host trees. There are an abundance of creepy crawlies and fungi that do require intervention here in VT, and the municipal forest is not an exception; but with this one you can just observe and enjoy the Wool Sower Gall.

More information on the formation of and including other topics of interest such as threats to our town forest and Black Gum Swamps are discussed in a 2017 virtual tour hosted by;  Forester Bill Gunther, Wetlands Program Manager Laura Lapierre and VT Fish and Wildlife Lands Ecologist Bob Zaino. I highly recommend watching this informative video on Vernon's ecological gem!  -Norma Manning