Asian Longhorned Beetle

Eradication programs are in progress in Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts, with firewood quarantines. The forests through much of the northeastern and midwestern US are at risk.

http://asianlonghornedbeetle.com

State of Masschusetts is spending over 60 million to control this exotic pest.

A problematic wood-boring beetle from Asia that is being watched closely due to the potential damage it could do to North American hardwood forests, especially maple forests, should it become established.

North American infestations have mainly been discovered in urban areas, most likely due to the beetles' having entered the US and Canada through commercial ports along with material imported from China. According to the University of Vermont's Entomological Research Laboratory, infestations have been discovered in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Toronto. Currently, destroying infested trees is the only reliable way of managing this pest.

In its native range, the Asian Longhorned Beetle has long been a particularly destructive pest, destroying many a... read morecres of forested land in China. The female beetle cuts through the outer bark of its host tree in order to lay her eggs. Upon hatching, the beetle larvae bore deep into the inner bark to feed, destroying both sapwood and hardwood, eventually killing the tree.