The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it has
received confirmation that a beetle collected on the county
fairgrounds in Morrison is an emerald ash borer. An alert forestry
technician with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources spotted
a distressed ash tree on the property and notified IDOA staff, who
found a dead adult beetle in the bark. The beetle was submitted to
the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which
confirmed it as EAB. "We have monitoring traps throughout
Whiteside and its neighboring counties," said Scott Schirmer, EAB
program manager. "Thus far, the infestation appears highly
localized. In fact, we have not even been able to confirm EAB in any
other ash trees on the property."
The emerald ash borer is a small, metallic-green beetle native to
Asia. Its larvae burrow into the bark of ash trees, causing the
trees to starve and eventually die. Since the first detection of the
pest near Detroit, Mich., in 2002, it has killed more than 25
million ash trees.
The beetle often is difficult to detect, especially in newly
infested trees. Signs of infestation include thinning and yellowing
leaves, "D"-shaped holes in the bark of the trunk or branches, and
basal shoots. Anyone who suspects an ash tree has been infested
should contact their county Extension office, their village forester
or the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Forty-one Illinois counties currently are under quarantine to
prevent the artificial or "human-assisted" spread of the beetle
through the movement of infested wood and nursery stock.
Specifically, the quarantine prohibits the removal of the following
items:
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Any cut,
non-coniferous firewood.
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Bark from ash
trees, and wood chips larger than 1 inch from ash trees.
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Ash logs and
lumber with either the bark or the outer 1 inch of sapwood, or
both, attached.
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Any item made from
or containing the wood of the ash tree that is capable of
spreading the emerald ash borer.
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Any other article, product or means of
conveyance determined by the Illinois Department of Agriculture
to present a risk of spreading the beetle infestation.
The counties under quarantine are Boone, Bureau, Champaign,
Clark, Coles, Cook, Cumberland, DeKalb, DeWitt, Douglas, DuPage,
Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Grundy, Henry, Iroquois, Kane,
Kankakee, Kendall, Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Macon,
Marion, Marshall, McHenry, McLean, Moultrie, Ogle, Piatt, Putnam,
Shelby, Stark, Vermilion, Will, Winnebago and Woodford.
For further information about the beetle, visit
www.IllinoisEAB.com on the
Internet.
[Text from
Illinois Department of
Agriculture
file received from the
Illinois Office of Communication and Information]
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