There is a common pest that affects loblolly and shortleaf pine stands in the southeastern United States – the Nantucket Pine Tip Moth.
Tip moths can range from as far north as Massachusetts to the south end of Florida and west into East Texas. They will have four to five life cycles throughout a year, and the first noticeable sign of an attack is the yellowing and dying of the buds on the stems and the top of the seedling or sapling.
Vigorous seedlings will outgrow this quicker, thus emphasizing the importance of higher, faster-growing genetics like ArborGen’s MCP®.
One critical misconception is that the pine tip moth will affect the quality of the stem or the form of the tree and that it’s going to cause a fork tree or it’s going to cause a tree with multiple stems. Once a pine tree reaches a ceiling height of about 12 to 15 feet, the tip moths move on, and they move on to smaller and shorter trees.