Question
I have 80 acres of two year old loblolly pines. I have 2 trees that have no needles left on them. on the second tree there was what appears to be saw fly larve. should i be concerned about the rest of the trees?  if so how do i eliminate the saw fly larve?

Answer
Do not worry about the 80 acres of pine seedlings being eaten by saw flies. One thing sawflies have a single life cycle-meaning they hatch out and eat the needles and then become adults and lay eggs but do this once a year. So the population does not build up very fast and it would take a large population to cover 80 acres. On small trees the larvae can be pick off and destroyed IF found. I would not search each seedling and remove the larvae this is not necessary. I would not worry about losing a few seedlings in an 80 acre planting it is such a very small percent it will not make a difference in the plantation. Sawflies are one of those insects that will spend part of their life in the duff and upper layers of the soil. This causes them to have a high mortality rate due to predators and diseases that attack the insect in the soil. So the chance of having any problem next year it very low. Again do not worry about this problem.