The Emerald Ash Borer
Week of July 1st, 2010
PRESS ADVISORY
2010 Emerald Ash Borer Survey
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
July 1, 2010
CONFIRMATION OF EMERALD ASH BORER
IN CUDAHY (MILWAUKEE COUNTY)
Details of Latest Confirmation: A single emerald ash borer (EAB) adult beetle was discovered in the City of Cudahy on June 30, 2010. The beetle was discovered during a routine check of an EAB survey trap near the intersection of E. Grange Ave. and Disch Ave. Positive identification was made by an entomologist with the Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in Madison. The trap is approximately five miles northeast of EAB infested trees identified in Oak Creek in January, 2010.
Week of May 24th, 2010:
Emerald Ash Borer Week
Howdy, BugFans,
The BugLady tries to inject a dose of humor/irony/attitude into her insect biographies, but there’s nothing funny about today’s Bug o’ the Week, the invasive and highly destructive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). True, the EAB (Agrilus planipennis) didn’t ask to come here, and the dynamics of its expansion/explosion into uncharted, tasty, and predator-free territory follows the pattern of many previous invasive species. But, the BugLady is a lifelong fan of ash trees, so this one is personal.
Wisconsin’s first EAB infestation was discovered in the summer of 2008 on property adjacent to Riveredge Nature Center, just three miles from the BugLady’s home. EABs had been nibbling at the state’s north and south borders for several years, and their leapfrogging of several counties into Ozaukee County was a surprise. Since that date, they have been found in elsewhere in the southern half of the state (go to
http://www.emeraldashborer.wi.gov/ and click on the link labeled “Map”).
Originally from Asia, the beetle was first discovered in the Detroit, MI area in 2002. It had probably hitched a ride into this country as much as 10 years earlier. Its strong flight typically allows it to increase its range by a mile or two per year, but it doesn’t have to depend on its wings to travel, since people have been doing the heavy lifting for it. The EAB has traveled hidden in shipments of ash tree products, from nursery stock to firewood to pallets, and it has now spread from Lower Michigan to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, West Virginia and two Canadian Provinces. Almost all of the northeastern quadrant of the US.
Named for their green coloration, EABs are in the Metallic Wood Borer family (Buprestidae), a group of often-iridescent, sturdy-looking, bullet-shaped, short-legged, beetles whose thorax and stiff wing coverings look pitted and tough. EABs are about one-half inch long and an eighth of an inch wide. Not all ash borers are created equal; the native red-headed ash borer is in a different beetle family and is not a pest of healthy trees.
The EAB, which feeds only on members of the Ash family, is a grave threat to Wisconsin’s landscape. In the nearby Cedarburg Bog, for example, white ash grows in upland areas, and black, red and green ash are common in the wetter swamp hardwood and conifer swamp areas. The same inaccessibility that makes the Bog such valuable habitat for plants and animals makes comprehensive pest-control very difficult. At Riveredge, some 30% of the woodland trees are ash. Sources estimate that since 2002, 15 to 40 million North American ash trees have been killed by or are dying from EAB (most experts lean toward the higher number). To grasp its potential impact on Wisconsin, consider that the DNR estimates that there are more than 700 million ash trees in Wisconsin forests, and about 5 million more in our towns and cities. On its home playing field in Asia, the EAB is uncommon and ash trees can fend off an attack, but North American trees have no natural resistance.
Unlike Dutch Elm disease, a beetle-spread fungus disease that killed the majority of American elms, the damage done by the EAB is mechanical. The larval ash borers (grubs) tunnel and feed in the cambium and phloem just below the tree’s bark, blocking the flow of water and nutrients, and starving the tree’s crown. Their twisty tunnels are called galleries. Once infested, a tree is doomed, usually dying from the top, down within a few years. Dying trees often put up brushy new growth around the base of their trunk in an attempt to survive. Unlike their destructive offspring, adult EABs dine harmlessly on ash leaves.
Eggs are laid in crevices in tree bark, and when the larvae/grubs hatch out, they bore down through the bark into the nutritious cambium. There they feed until they’re about an inch long in mid-fall. They appear to overwinter as larvae under the bark and pupate in spring. Adults emerge by late June, exiting through a characteristic “D” shaped opening in the bark. Adults are active during summer but are gone by September. It’s unclear whether they live one or two years.
Woodpeckers make an occasional meal of the EAB, but it has no real enemies in this country. A few alien parasitic wasps are being tested as potential biological controls. When an infestation is discovered, quarantines on the movement of ash products, especially firewood, are imposed. Some states have tried destroying all ash trees, infested or not, within a certain radius of where the beetles were found, but this tactic has proved both unpopular and unsuccessful. There are a number of insecticides that show promise in preventing or treating an infestation. Since they are systemic and rely on being circulated via the same channels the larvae are interrupting, success in treating an infected tree is “iffy.”
This summer 8,700 large, purple sticky-traps will hang from trees in 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. They are not a tool to control the beetle, they are an attempt to discover where the EAB is. They are baited with oil from the mankua tree, which smells like an injured ash tree. Last year 279 traps were deployed, and only one EAB stuck. The BugLady thinks this is a phenomenal opportunity to do general surveys of Wisconsin insect fauna and wishes that legions of entomologists were being deployed to record the non-EABs that meet their end on a purple sticky-trap.
About the pictures. If the EAB adult and larva look like they might just have been poured out of small bottles of formaldehyde, there’s a good reason for that (Thanks, Mary). Also, out in Nature, the D-shaped exit holes do not come with tiny, red lipstick outlines.
Following closely on the heels of the EAB, of course, have been a number of “entrepreneurs” who misdiagnose infestations and sell bogus prevention, treatment and eradication services to worried land owners. Caveat emptor!
The BugLady wishes everyone a safe, happy and productive EAB Awareness Week.
The BugLady
2/20/10 EVENT:
Small Scale Logging & Slowing the Spread of EAB
Emerald Ash Borer Field Day
SAVE THE DATE!!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Riveredge Nature Center, Newburg, WI
AGENDA
12:30 Introductions of participants (Luke Saunders, TCRCD/DNR Forest Health)
12:45 Sink Tree project methodology and goals: (Jane Cummings, DNR Forest Health Coordinator)
1:00-4:30 Rotating sessions with presenters and practitioners Work will progress and practitioners will explain their work as critical masses of people gather. Coffee, cider and cookies will be available throughout.
Guidelines for ash management (Julie Peltier, DNR Ozaukee and Washington counties forester)
Quarantine regulations and compliance (Anna Healy, DATCP)
Riveredge EAB mitigation plan (Marc White, Riveredge)
Horse Logging (John Adametz, A-Z Percherons)
Radio Horse Winch (Jim Uhrinak, GreenTree - Tree Care and Consulting)
Small-scale logging arch (Jim Uhrinak, GreenTree - Tree Care and Consulting)
Woodmizer portable sawmill (Lance Wallace, Wallace Tree Care)
Tracked skid steer (Lance Wallace, Wallace Tree Care)
4:30 Adjourn
(11/3/09) Emerald Ash Borer Multi-State Positive Map for November
(10/5/09)
Hello and thank you for your continued interest in the Emerald Ash Borer. The following is an update on a few EAB-related activities in your area.
- The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and UW-Extension were successful in requesting funds from the USDA Forest Service to conduct several projects over the next two years. Following are some of the projects planned with the funding:
- Provision of two workshops, one for municipal forestry leaders and one for private woodland owners. These will focus on the status of EAB, regulatory requirements, utilization and management options. The workshop for municipalities will be on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 in West Bend. The landowner session will be on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at the Riveredge Nature Center. Additional educational sessions for homeowners are also being discussed. Here is a link to more information about the workshops. http://www.townandcountryrcd.org/
- "Sink" trees, or ash trees with large canopies that are located in the center of the infestation were identified on the River Edge Nature Center property. These trees were girdled to attract adult EAB back into the areas that are already infested. These trees are expected to be preferentially infested by EAB and will be destroyed or utilized during the winter of 2009 - '10.
- An inventory of forest lands was conducted on properties within 3 miles of Newburg where landowners agreed to participate. That data is currently being summarized and landowners will be contacted regarding the findings and options for minimizing the impact of EAB.
- Some of the federal funds are available to cut and destroy or utilize infested trees. Inventory data will be used to target areas that have infested ash; landowners will be contacted and work is expected to be conducted during the winter of 2009 - '10.
- Four DATCP staff set 812 EAB detection traps in a six-mile wide delimit area around Newburg during summer 2009. Traps were utilized to determine the edges of the infestation in the area. All EAB delimiting traps were removed from the Newburg area by September 3rd. . Two delimit traps contained one beetle each. No other EAB were found in the 6-mile wide delimit area. Click Here for a map that shows the trapping results. The trapping delimit program is fully funded by partners at USDA-APHIS
Special thanks to:
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
In the news:
September 10th, 2009 - 3 more counties under quarantine to slow bug's spread
September 2nd, 2009 - Traps in counties turn up only 1 adult ash borer
August 28th, 2009 - Emerald ash borer discovered in Franklin
August 12th, 2009 - Emerald ash borer found in Kenosha
July 28th, 2009 - Emerald ash borer found in Green Bay