Long Island Regulated Area: 

Asian Longhorned Beetle

ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE SEPTEMBER 2014 

PLANT PROTECTION AND QUARANTINE

The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB, Anoplophora 

glabripennis) is an invasive pest that threatens 

hardwood trees. The beetle is native to China and 

other areas of East Asia, and it arrived in the United 

States concealed in solid wood packing material, the 

pallets and crates used to transport goods. The ALB 

was first discovered in the United States in Brooklyn, 

NY, in 1996. It has since been detected in four other 

States and areas of New York, including Queens, 

Nassau, and Suffolk counties. 

At the end of July 2013, an alert homeowner on Long 

Island reported a suspicious insect to State officials 

by providing a photograph and video clip of the live 

insect on their private property. The U.S. Department 

of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the insect 

was ALB. This was the first detection of the invasive 

pest outside the existing Nassau-Suffolk County 

regulated area, which had been in place since 1996. 

Together with the New York State Department of 

Agriculture and Markets, APHIS began surveys in 

several neighborhoods to determine the scope of 

the infestation.

Regulated Area

In February 2014, the State of New York proposed 

to amend the existing ALB Suffolk County quarantine 

due to the new detection. In April 2014, APHIS 

updated Federal regulations accordingly. The 

amended quarantine adds 28 square miles to the 

existing 23-square-mile regulated area of NassauSuffolk Counties, resulting in a total of 137 square 

miles under quarantine for ALB in the State. 

The amended quarantine includes the towns 

of Oyster Bay, Huntington, and Babylon. For a 

map of the Long Island quarantine area, go to 

www.AsianLonghornedBeetle.com; in the top left 

corner of the page, click on “New York” and then 

“Long Island Quarantine Map” (at center of new page). 

Both Federal and State laws establish regulated 

areas (quarantines) around ALB infestations. The 

regulated areas help with beetle eradication by 

curtailing the movement of materials that could host 

the ALB and carry it to new locations. This keeps 

infestations from spreading. Federal and State laws 

also outline the conditions and requirements for 

moving regulated articles out of or within the infested 

areas. The Federal regulation can be found in 

the Code of Federal Regulations, specifically under 

Title 7, section 301.51. New York State laws for ALB 

can be found in the New York Codes, Rules and 

Regulations under Title 1, part 139 (“Control of the 

Asian Longhorned Beetle”).

Working in Long Island’s 

Regulated Area

In New York, you may not harvest, cut, move, carry, 

transport, or ship (or authorize or allow any other 

person to do the same) regulated articles outside of 

ALB-regulated areas without authorization from the 

State’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets. 

Wood from ALB host trees may not be taken out of 

regulated areas without a compliance agreement, 

permit, or certification, unless the wood is chipped 

to less than 1 inch in two dimensions. Wood chips of 

this size are no longer a regulated article.

If you do commercial work involving regulated 

materials within the New York ALB-regulated areas, 

you or your company must have a compliance 

agreement in place with the State’s ALB eradication 

program. A compliance agreement allows you to 

move host material from the regulated area in lieu 

of a certificate or limited permit. This requirement 

applies to all individuals and businesses (e.g., 

landscaping, construction companies, nurseries, 

tree removal services, firewood dealers, and others) 

performing work on regulated articles within the 
quarantine areas. It also applies to companies that 

prune or remove trees or in any way handle wood 

that comes from the 13 ALB host tree species. 

To enter into a compliance agreement, you must 

first attend a free training workshop given by ALB 

eradication program officials. All employees of the 

businesses and companies seeking compliance 

agreements are urged to attend this training. At the 

conclusion of training, the compliance agreement 

will be issued to an individual, business, or 

company official. 

If you have questions about regulated materials and 

permits in New York, please call the ALB program 

at 1-631-288-1751.

Living in Regulated Areas

The ALB can spread to new locations by 

hitchhiking on a variety of materials made from 

hardwood trees. Given this risk, if you live in a 

New York ALB-regulated area, you may not move 

any regulated articles out of the quarantine zone. 

Regulated articles include firewood of all hardwood 

tree species, green lumber, and other materials as 

listed in the State and Federal regulations for ALB. 

When you hire contractors to work on your home 

or property, make sure they have compliance 

agreements for any work on ALB host trees. 

Contractors with compliance agreements have 

received stickers for use on their company vehicles; 

the stickers are displayed on the vehicle and state 

the ALB sticker number assigned to the compliance 

holder. This sticker verifies that the company has 

been trained to handle wood materials in an ALBregulated area and has access to the designated 

sites where regulated materials may be disposed 

of safely. 

To support ALB eradication efforts, please allow 

State officials access to your property to perform 

surveys and related work. This includes locating 

ALB host trees and inspecting them for signs of 

infestation; removing infested trees and, in some 

cases, high-risk host trees near infested trees; 

or applying control treatments to host trees. ALB 

program representatives carry out these activities 

on residential, municipal, parkland, and business 

properties. There is no cost to homeowners 

for removing ALB-infested trees. The work is 

completed by specified contractors of the New York 

ALB Eradication Program.

Watch for Signs of ALB

The adult ALB is a distinctive-looking insect 

measuring 1 to 1 1⁄2 inches long, not including its 

antennae. In females, the antennae are as long as 

the body itself; in males, they are almost twice the 

length of the body. The insect’s body is shiny and 

black with irregular white spots. The long antennae 

are banded in black and white.

Trees with ALB show a number of signs that they 

are infested. Here’s what to look for:

• Adult beetles in the summer and early fall

• Round holes at least three-eighths of an inch 

in diameter on tree trunks and limbs

• Accumulation of sawdust-like material (called 

“frass”) around base of tree or branches

• Small, roundish pockmarks on bark, chewed 

by the female beetle to lay eggs

• Oozing sap from wounds on branches and 

trunks, especially on maple trees

• Dieback in tree canopy or unseasonable 

change in leaf color

To report a suspected ALB infestation in New York, 

call 1-866-265-0301 or 1-866-702-9938.

To learn more, go to or contact:

www.aphis.usda.gov

www.AsianLonghornedBeetle.com

New York ALB Eradication Program

320 Merrick Road

Amityville, NY 11701

Phone: (631) 598-5943

USDA is an equal 

opportunity provider 

APHIS 81-35-022 and employer.