Do I need to know this?

The best way to protect our trees and plants from pest and disease outbreaks is with ongoing monitoring of health. As with our own health, trees and plants are more susceptible threats from pests and diseases if they are under stress from other factors such as extremes of heat, drought or poor management practices.

It is helpful to be familiar with the pests and diseases that may affect specific hosts you are looking after, so you are able to detect signs and symptoms as early as possible and take appropriate action.

Diagnosis

With time, knowledge and experience, you may be able identify a number of different pests and disease yourself. However, there’s no shame in not knowing what something is! There are a number of plant clinics around the country with specialist diagnosticians for mycology, bacteriology, virology, entomology and nematology who’s job it is to test and diagnose pathogens and its not always straight forward. If in doubt please do get in the professionals.

Notifiable P&D

Some pests and diseases are notifiable, which means that, in England, they must be reported to the Forestry Commission or the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

Notifiable pests and diseases are the ones that have the potential to cause the greatest damage to our trees, woods and forests. If an outbreak of a notifiable pest or disease is confirmed, action will be taken to try and eradicate it.