It’s a problem that officials in New York thought they had under control but now, for the first time in five years, a new infestation of Asian longhorned beetles (ALB) has emerged on Long Island. According to the ThinkProgress blog, 500 trees are known to be riddled with the hungry pests and state officials estimate another 4,500 trees in central Long Island will have to be taken down to create a buffer zone to stop the spread. Time is of the essence - in a few weeks, the tree-tunneling beetles will bore their way out and take flight, potentially increasing the infestation area by a substantial amount.
The pests were first discovered in the New York area in 1996, most likely transported as stowaways in timber from China. Since then, almost 20,000 trees have been sacrificed in an attempt to keep the beetle at bay. The inch-long pest hungers after a variety of trees, including maple, ash, birch, elm, horse chestnut, willow, poplar and other hardwoods.
Officials announced last summer that the beetle had officially been eradicated from Manhattan and Staten Island, as well as the entire state of New Jersey, where no beetles had been seen since 2006, but Cornell entomologist Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann wonders if we haven’t been looking closely enough.
“My feeling is, they never went away. We just missed them,” she said. “It’s definitely disappointing and we just need strong efforts to eradicate this.”
As well as delivering an devastating blow to an area that already lost a lot of trees due to Hurricane Sandy, there are fears that the beetles will spread to upstate New York and cripple the maple syrup industry.
