U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Asian Longhorned Beetle Project is continuing tree surveys this summer to search for Asian longhorned beetle infestations. Maples, birches, horse chestnuts, willows, elms, ashes, and box elders are all targets of ALB and are individually surveyed within the established quarantined areas of New York City, Long Island, Chicago, and several Chicago suburbs to ensure no signs of an ALB infestation are present.
Inspectors utilize three common methods to conduct Asian longhorned beetle surveys.
Inspectors must be allowed to survey all trees on public and private property within quarantine boundaries. Left undetected, infested trees will die and neighboring trees could become infested as well. The ALB, native to China, bores into healthy hardwood trees and feeds on living tree tissue during the larval stage. Later, throughout the summer, adult beetles emerge from exit holes and briefly feed on the small twigs of host trees. To fight this destructive pest, agriculture officials removed and destroyed more than 5,000 trees in and around New York City and more than 1,400 trees in the Chicago area.