bucktail
03-18-2003, 10:04 AM
Ohio's Ash Trees Threatened By Asian Beetle
Beetles Have Destroyed Millions Of Trees In Ontario, Michigan
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About 40 ash trees on five properties will be destroyed after a tree-eating beetle was found in northwest Ohio.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has quarantined the properties near Whitehouse, southwest of Toledo, after discovering the emerald ash borer in several trees in February. No wood or wood products can be removed from the quarantine area in Lucas County, said agriculture department spokeswoman Melanie Wilt.
The beetles, which have traveled south from Canada, have destroyed millions of trees in southwestern Ontario and in six counties in southeastern Michigan.
"It would be hard to overestimate the threat," said Dan Herms, a forest entomologist at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at Wooster. "It apparently attacks healthy trees, whereas most borers attack stressed trees. It's very disheartening."
He and other officials worry that the beetle will be as dangerous as Dutch elm disease and chestnut blight, fungal diseases that wipe out American elms and chestnuts.
Officials think the emerald ash borer -- Agrilus planipennis -- entered the country as many as five years ago in wood pallets or shipping crates in Detroit.
It takes time for them to advance -- adult borers fly about a mile per year.
Most of the infested Ohio acres are or were owned by Albert C. Thomas, who operates an excavating company in Whitehouse.
Thomas said he sold several neighboring 1.5-acre tracts for homes and that one buyer called state officials after discovering masses of beetle eggs and cocoons in February.
Beetles Have Destroyed Millions Of Trees In Ontario, Michigan
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About 40 ash trees on five properties will be destroyed after a tree-eating beetle was found in northwest Ohio.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has quarantined the properties near Whitehouse, southwest of Toledo, after discovering the emerald ash borer in several trees in February. No wood or wood products can be removed from the quarantine area in Lucas County, said agriculture department spokeswoman Melanie Wilt.
The beetles, which have traveled south from Canada, have destroyed millions of trees in southwestern Ontario and in six counties in southeastern Michigan.
"It would be hard to overestimate the threat," said Dan Herms, a forest entomologist at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at Wooster. "It apparently attacks healthy trees, whereas most borers attack stressed trees. It's very disheartening."
He and other officials worry that the beetle will be as dangerous as Dutch elm disease and chestnut blight, fungal diseases that wipe out American elms and chestnuts.
Officials think the emerald ash borer -- Agrilus planipennis -- entered the country as many as five years ago in wood pallets or shipping crates in Detroit.
It takes time for them to advance -- adult borers fly about a mile per year.
Most of the infested Ohio acres are or were owned by Albert C. Thomas, who operates an excavating company in Whitehouse.
Thomas said he sold several neighboring 1.5-acre tracts for homes and that one buyer called state officials after discovering masses of beetle eggs and cocoons in February.