page_title: Emerald ash borer
section_title: Monitoring
hierarchical_section_title: Emerald ash borer / Invasiveness / Monitoring
caption_attribution_description: English: A purple trap used for a U.S.-government-sponsored nationwide emerald ash borer tracking program. This one was found on Meier Road in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, near Darmstadt.
context_page_description: The emerald ash borer, also known by the acronym EAB, is a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years. In its native range, it is typically found at low densities and does not cause significant damage to trees native to the area. Outside its native range, it is an invasive species and is highly destructive to ash trees native to Europe and North America. Prior to being found in North America, very little was known about emerald ash borer in its native range; this has resulted in much of the research on its biology being focused in North America. Local governments in North America are attempting to control it by monitoring its spread, diversifying tree species, insecticides, and biological control.
context_section_description: In areas where emerald ash borer has not yet been detected, surveys are used to monitor for new infestations. Visual surveys are used to find ash trees displaying emerald ash borer damage, and traps with colors attractive to emerald ash borer, such as purple or green, are hung in trees as part of a monitoring program. These traps can also have volatile pheromones applied to them that attract primarily males.
  Sometimes trees are girdled to act as trap trees to monitor for emerald ash borer. The stressed tree attracts egg-laying females in the spring, and trees can be debarked in the fall to search for larvae. If detected, an area is often placed under a quarantine to prevent infested wood material from causing new infestations. Further control measures are then taken within the area to slow population growth by reducing beetle numbers, preventing them from reaching reproductive maturity and dispersing, and reducing the abundance of ash trees.
  Government agencies in both the U.S. and Canada have utilized a native species of parasitoid wasp, Cerceris fumipennis, as a means of detecting areas to which emerald ash borer has spread. The females of these wasps hunt other jewel beetles and emerald ash borer if it is present. The wasps stun the beetles and carry them back to their burrows in the ground where they are stored until the wasps’ eggs hatch and the wasp larvae feed on the beetles. Volunteers catch the wasps as they return to their burrows carrying the beetles to determine whether emerald ash borer is present. This methodology is known as biological surveillance, as opposed to biological control, because it does not appear that the wasps have a significant negative impact on emerald ash borer populations.
caption: A purple trap used for determining the extent of the invasion
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