07-17-2009
Nearly 7,000 EAB Traps "Up and Running"

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.

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