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Jun 13, 2006 6:57 pm US/Central
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Bug That Kills Ash Trees Found In Illinois
State Preparing To Eradicate Emerald Ash Borer
by Mike Puccinelli
KANE COUNTY (CBS) ―
The dreaded ash borer beetle has invaded the Chicagoland area.
CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports on the fight against a destructive pest that can wipe out certain trees.
In the international fight against the emerald ash borer, ReBecca Mathewson's backyard is the latest battleground. It's where this Kane County homeowner last week found a beetle that Illinois officials have long feared in a rural subdivision near Lily Lake, about 40 miles west of Chicago.
"I saw a bug dangling from a tree. It was caught in a cobweb, so I went over and I grabbed it and sure enough it was an emerald ash borer," she said.
She sent it to state officials, who confirmed the bug's presence.
The emerald ash borer is blamed for the loss of nearly 20 million trees in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and neighboring Ontario since it was first found near Detroit in 2002. The pest is believed to have found its way from China to the United States in shipping crates, possibly as long as 15 years ago, Appleby said.
That's why the state's top agriculture official was in Kane County Tuesday.
"For the last two years, we have been preparing for this day with our partners in the emerald ash borer readiness team, hoping it would never come," said Illinois Agriculture Director Chuck Hartke.
But now that it has come, experts have to try to contain the deadly beetle. They'll be looking for the adult beetles, which we found crawling all over ash trees in one infested Kane County subdivision.
They'll also be looking for tell tale holes that the bugs create in a unique 'D' shape.
Another sign of the pest is stripped away bark. That's from woodpeckers that feast on the larvae. Once workers pinpoint the infected area, it will be quarantined.
"The establishment of a quarantine allows the department to restrict the movement of host materials such as trees and firewood from the quarantine zone," said Natural Resources Division Manager Warren Goetsch.
Goetsch says it's possible the pest has been in trees there as long as five years and has spread.
"I think if it gets established, it will absolutely eliminate all of our ash trees," said James A. Appleby, a University of Illinois professor and scientist with the Illinois Natural History Survey in Champaign. "So far, there are no ash trees that have been found resistant."
That zone will likely be set up in just more than a month. Until then, officials want you to take a cue from Mathewson and check your trees before any more of the 110 million ash trees in Chicagoland are devastated by a bug from Asia that now calls Kane County Home.
Congress appropriated $10 million in this year's budget to help prevent, control, and eradicate emerald ash borer, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a letter to state agriculture director Chuck Hartke. Durbin also wrote Tuesday to Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, to seek $2.6 million in new money in next year's budget for research and technology to battle the pest.
"Until recently, the country had been fortunate that the emerald ash borer infestation was bounded to the north, east, and west by three of the Great Lakes, which had helped facilitate mitigation efforts," Durbin wrote. "However, we see with the spread of the emerald ash borer west into Illinois recently, additional funding for EAB research is essential not only to contain the pest, but begin to suppress it."
It's likely the borer reached Kane County in firewood from an infested area, Goetsch said. Besides the yard where it was discovered, state inspectors found at least six more infested trees within five blocks, as well as evidence of infestation in an adjacent subdivision.
But Goetsch said it's possible the infestation can be contained.
"It looks like when this subdivision was put in they did diversify the landscape," he said. "We estimate that perhaps only 5 to 10 percent at the most of the trees are ash."
State officials say they will depend on the public to help find emerald ash borer, much as with the Asian longhorned beetle, which has been nearly eradicated from Chicago and surrounding suburbs.
If you believe the ash borer is attacking your trees, call the county extension office.
A hotline has also been set up for confirmed cases: 800-641-3934.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)