Ambrosia beetles (AB) are found throughout the United States. Exotic AB species can establish large population size and cause major economic damage when they infest, damage and ultimately kill trees in nurseries and orchards. We aimed to understand the seasonal dynamics of native and exotic AB after overwintering in woodlots and quantify their flight activity throughout their flying season. We expected timing of flight patterns to be correlated with degree-days (DD), and native AB to have longer seasonal flight patterns and earlier initial flight compared to native AB species. Our study quantified AB captures using ethanol-baited traps in coniferous and deciduous woodlots over four years. Sampling began March/April and commenced September/October, when captures were essentially zero. We compared first flight, peak flight and total beetle captures over a season. Overall, non-native AB captures were 341-times greater than native species. Captures of Xylosandrus germanus were much higher than any other species: ten times greater than captures of Anisandrus maiche, but 450-times greater than the most commonly captured native species, Xyloborinus politus. Non-native AB flight duration was 49 d compared to just 10 d of flight for native species and initial flight occurred earlier at 188 DD for non-native species compared to 273 DD for native species. These data will help growers focus on which species of AB to monitor for, have a better understanding of their flight patterns and be better able to predict, monitor and control for invasive AB.
