Posted: 05.06.2011
The search for the tree-killing emerald ash borer (EAB) is underway in Wisconsin. Seasonal workers with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) have begun hanging purple, box-like survey traps in ash trees across the state in advance of adult beetles emerging from infested trees later this spring and summer.
In all, DATCP expects to put up roughly 5,900 survey traps this spring. Many of them will be concentrated in the northwestern part of the state, as required by the US Department of Agriculture and federal EAB survey coordinators. The traps are designed to attract beetles through color, scent, size and location. They are coated with a sticky substance that traps the beetle if it lands on the device.
“Emerald ash borer and all its close beetle relatives are notoriously difficult to find,” said Melody Walker, the Pest Survey and Control section chief with DATCP. “But the payoff of early detection is not to be underestimated. The communities and property owners who have time to prepare for an approaching infestation probably have more management options to choose from and may have more time to spread out the cost of implementing those options.”
Twenty seasonal workers began setting up traps this week with the goal of having them all in place by the end of the month, in time to catch adult beetles emerging in early June. The traps will be monitored periodically during the summer, then taken down in September. Wisconsin’s survey effort is part of a national survey funded by a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS). Nationwide, more than 61,000 traps will be deployed in 48 states.
Infested areas in Wisconsin include the Village of Newburg along the Ozaukee-Washington county border, Victory in the southwest near the Mississippi River, and the communities of Cudahy, Franklin and Oak Creek in Milwaukee County. Adult beetles have also been caught in Green Bay and Kenosha, but infested trees have yet to be confirmed. Because of these infestations and the presence of beetles, 11 counties are under a quarantine that restricts the movement of certain products, such as hardwood firewood, that could give transport to the pest. Those counties are: Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Brown, Vernon and Crawford. Additional counties will be quarantined if new discoveries are made this summer
EAB was discovered near Detroit in 2002 and probably arrived in North America in wooden shipping crates from Asia. They’ve destroyed millions of trees already and have been found in 13 other states and in two Canadian provinces. The insect kills ash trees when the larvae eat the layer of soft wood that supplies the tree with water and nutrients.
« back to news articles
