Emerald Ash Borer Adult

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture announced on Tuesday, July 27th the first detection of emerald ash borer in the State of Tennessee. This discovery was made the week of July 19th at a truck stop in Knox County near the Loudon County line.

Read the official news release by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. The current status of positive finds of EAB in the U.S. can be seen on the APHIS quarantine map. ASETS is currently cooperating in a multi-partner effort to research the slowing the spread of EAB in the U.S. Visit the SLAM project website at http://www.slameab.info.

Below is a map showing the location of Knox County. The find here is interesting due to the fact that it seems to be disconnected from the larger EAB population. The next closest positive EAB finds have been in north central Kentucky and south central West Virginia.

Knox County, Tennessee

• New York State Emerald Ash Borer Detection
• Hopeful Emerald Ash Borer News
• emeraldashborer: Chicago Emerald Ash Borer Central: Spring 2011: EAB News: http://t.co/H6L1D2k

Here is a description of the finds from the official NYSDEC press release:

The Steuben County discovery occurred on July 12 when a state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) staff member inspected one of the state’s EAB purple traps. The traps are sticky and contain a chemical lure that attracts adult EAB. The detection was confirmed this week by Cornell University. The Ulster County discovery occurred on July 15 when a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) staff member checked a federally-deployed EAB trap and the specimen has since been confirmed by APHIS. Each EAB trap had one confirmed EAB specimen.

Here is what NYS officials plan in response to this latest EAB find:

A cooperative effort among USDA, New York State, Cornell and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry will conduct a thorough delimiting survey of trees to assess the extent of beetles in both areas. Information from this survey will help determine the response strategy.

The New York Invasive Species Council and DEC’s Office of Invasive Species Coordination were established in 2007 to help detect new invasive species outbreaks and rapidly respond to such incidents. Further follow-up to slow the spread of this very destructive forest insect will depend on funding made available. New York is working with state and federal legislators and agencies to inform them of the recent finds and the urgent need to identify additional funding sources to address these new occurrences.

Read the full NYSDEC press release and for additional information on EAB you can visit http://www.emeraldashborer.info/.

• emeraldashborer: New Weapon in Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Detection Found in Illinois:http://t.co/xuyPz5G
• emeraldashborer: Illinois emerald ash borer quarantine expanded; now includes 40 percent of the state.: http://t.co/HxwfuQtu
• Emerald Ash Borer in Tennessee

Joy Landis is providing the blog updates while traveling with the IPM group. She is communications Manager and Assistant IPM Coordinator with the Integrated Pest Management Program at Michigan State University.

May 18, 2009: MSU scientists head to 4th annual meeting in Central Asia
The Central Asia IPM Project formally began in 2004. Collaborative projects take time to setup: securing funding, building multi-country relationships, performing the work, and always lots of reporting. The members of the project met in Uzbekistan in 2005, Kyrgyzstan in 2006, Tajikistan in 2007 and now back to Kyrgyzstan in 2009. The project employs a post-doc (local citizens) in each of these countries. The images in the early blog entries are from these visits.

The blog is being initiated now to share news from the travels to take place May 26-June 6, 2009. This time, along with a Central Asian IPM Forum, there will be a Pest Diagnostic Workshop in Bishkek, led by colleagues from the Ohio State University and Montana State University.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) today announced the discovery of an emerald ash borer infestation (EAB) in St. Paul just northeast of the intersection of Interstate 94 and Highway 280. This is the first detection of the destructive tree pest in Minnesota.

The infestation was initially reported to MDA by Rainbow Tree Care Company on Wednesday. After receiving the report and conducting an initial inspection, MDA submitted larvae from the infested trees to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for confirmation as EAB. USDA made that preliminary confirmation this morning.

In response to this finding, MDA plans to issue a quarantine prohibiting the movement of firewood, ash nursery stock, ash timber or any other article that could spread EAB in Ramsey and Hennepin counties. This quarantine is expected to be followed by a federal quarantine within days. MDA staff will now conduct a thorough survey of trees in the surrounding area to assess the extent of the infestation. Information from this survey will help determine the response strategy implemented by state and local officials. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are working closely with MDA in the response.

EAB is an invasive beetle that attacks and kills ash trees. Its larvae kill ash trees by tunneling into the wood and feeding on the tree’s nutrients. Since its accidental introduction into North America, EAB has killed millions of ash trees in 10 eastern states. With an estimated 900 million ash trees, Minnesota is a prime target for EAB. Earlier this year, MDA issued a quarantine for Houston County in response to an EAB infestation across the border in Wisconsin.

The metallic-green adult beetles are a half inch long, and are active from May to September. Signs of EAB infestation include one-eighth inch, D-shaped exit holes in ash tree bark and serpentine tunnels packed with sawdust under the bark. While EAB spreads slowly on its own, it can hitch a ride to new areas when people transport firewood or other wood products infested with the larvae. Officials urge Minnesotans to take steps to keep EAB from spreading:

• Don’t transport firewood, even within Minnesota. Don’t bring firewood along on a camping trip. Buy the wood you need locally from an approved vendor. Don’t bring extra wood home with you.

• Don’t buy or move firewood from outside your area. If someone comes to your door selling firewood, ask them about the source of the wood.

• Watch for signs of infestation in your ash trees. If you suspect your ash tree could be infested by EAB, visit www.mda.state.mn.us/invasives/eab and use the “Do I Have Emerald Ash Borer?” checklist.

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