6,893 EMERALD ASH BORER TRAPS SET; Release: July 17, 2009
BEETLES OBSERVED IN Contact: Mick Skwarok
QUARANTINE AREAS SO FAR Office: 608-224-4745
Mobile: 608-219-1492

MADISON – Since the beginning of May, surveyors with the Wisconsin
Department of Agriculture,
Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) have hung nearly 7,000 sticky,
purple traps in ash trees across the state in search of the emerald
ash borer. It’s one of the largest EAB detection efforts in the
country, funded in large part through a cooperative agreement with the
US Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (USDA APHIS).

Monitoring the traps will continue until early August, at which time
the surveyors will begin taking them down and giving them one last
inspection.

“So far, adult beetles have been captured on traps near areas known to
be infested with the tree-killing beetle; around Newburg in the
southeast and Victory in the southwest,” said Jennifer Statz, EAB
program manager with DATCP. “This includes three adult beetles we
found on a trap in northern Crawford County, which was already under
an EAB quarantine.”

The beetles found in Crawford County, approximately six miles
southeast of Victory, mark the first time that EAB has been identified
in that county.

“It appears that the Victory infestation, discovered early in the
spring, may be larger and more established than first suspected,”
Statz said. “A small group of specialists are looking closely in the
area where the beetles were discovered to locate infested trees.”

To try to slow the spread of EAB in Wisconsin, the state has banned
the movement of all hardwood
firewood, ash logs and other products from quarantined areas that
could move the pest undetected into new, non-infested areas. Firewood
is the leading culprit behind new infestations because of its common
and largely unregulated movement.

The emerald ash borer kills ash trees when its larvae tunnel through
the soft wood that supplies the tree with water and nutrients. Large,
healthy trees can succumb to EAB usually within three to five years.

But the signs of an infestation in a tree can be very subtle at first,
and it’s usually too late to save the tree once its determined that
EAB is the cause of the problem.

EAB was discovered near Detroit in 2002, likely arriving in North
America accidently transported in wooden shipping crates from China.
They’ve destroyed millions of trees already and have been found in 11
other states and in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec.

A partnership of state and federal agencies including DATCP, USDA
APHIS Plant Protection and
Quarantine and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources continues
to survey infested areas in Wisconsin and other parts of the state for
the destructive forest pest. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, the
UW Extension and the USDA Forest Service are also partners in
evaluating management options and in outreach to residents and local
units of government.

For additional information about emerald ash borer, please visit the
Wisconsin EAB Website at
www.emeraldashborer.wi.gov.