Asian longhorned beetles

[Wortown Mick]

Well theyre in town , not sure if this is a good or bad thing , for me at least because its gonna create alot of work. Probably talking thousands of removals come winter

Worcesters the fourth place in the USA to get an infestation as I understand it.


Any input ?

 

[Dadatwins]

Dealt with it in Greenpoint Brooklyn when it first arrived in the 90's. Nasty bug, drills hundreds of holes in the trees and make them unstable. Tree might have a green crown but is full of holes. Loves maple trees. Be careful on a rope and belt with removals as I said tree may be green but full of holes. Area will most likely be quarantined and you will not be allowed to transport material in or out of the area. Have your license and business paperwork in order 'cause the feds will be all over the place. Be careful.

 

[Wortown Mick]

Dealt with it in Greenpoint Brooklyn when it first arrived in the 90's. Nasty bug, drills hundreds of holes in the trees and make them unstable. Tree might have a green crown but is full of holes. Loves maple trees. Be careful on a rope and belt with removals as I said tree may be green but full of holes. Area will most likely be quarantined and you will not be allowed to transport material in or out of the area. Have your license and business paperwork in order 'cause the feds will be all over the place. Be careful.

Trees are to be chipped on site and burnt, including trunks. Stumps are to be ground out and burnt as well.
So anyone with a small chippers immediately out of the running. I was looking at some info on the bugs, they bore a 3/8 to dime sized hole out of the heartwood of the tree

With our winters infected trees are going to be easy to spot if the infestation persists. We have all sorts of maple around here from sugar to norway to silver & red maples . The bugs can inhabit almost any tree it seems but they prefer maple huh?

Theres already a quarantine in place as I understand it, cant remember what ground zero was but ill search it. The forests here are predominatly deciduous so if these things break quarantine its going to be noogood.

 

[Canyonbc]

Well be careful if they do bore out the whole tree does sound dangerous to climb on...like a rotten Oak.

Question,

Is their a site out there to show what part of the country the beetle has infected.

Not trying to change the thread, thought it was related.

Mike

 

[Wortown Mick]

Its certainly related.

The first infestation was on long island, or maybe it was brooklyn. Regardless NYC had some of the first infestations that were dealt with, then it was chicago or jersey. Now us.

Jersey removed some 23,000 trees :jawdrop:

 

[OTG BOSTON]

Check the forest service website for details.

I believe the Worcester infestation is a small area and well contained, probably not going to be a huge issue....

 

[Lawnmowerboy48]

From what I have heard Worcester has a pretty decent idea of what they have for street trees. As of now the ALB has not reached any forested land. So keep your fingers crossed that some hack doesn't bring infested wood out of the area. I thought I had found an ALB in my area, East of Worcester, a couple weeks back but it turned out to be a Whitespotted Sawyer which infest conifers. I found a couple in my trailer after I had a load of yellow pine in it, they make a clicking sound when you pick them up pretty cool, they burn great in an OWB.

 

[juststumps]

Well be careful if they do bore out the whole tree does sound dangerous to climb on...like a rotten Oak.

Question,

Is their a site out there to show what part of the country the beetle has infected.

Not trying to change the thread, thought it was related.

Mike

WHAT ??

 

[Wortown Mick]

Check the forest service website for details.

I believe the Worcester infestation is a small area and well contained, probably not going to be a huge issue....

Well, thus far its something like 10-15 square miles.
USDS demands every tree within 1/4 mile of an infested tree gets removed.

They expanded the boundaries of the quarantine from Greendale to include parts of West Boylston and Holden.. which ARE both forested.

Apparently the beetles have had to be in Worcester for 5 years , which leads me to believe they could have spread undetected for awhile.

Its been front page on the news for a few days now, Ill keep updating as I find out more. The paper had a pic of a smokejumper doing an inspection in NJ...

Now why use smokejumpers for inspections.. they have fires to fight.


I hope they sub out all the work to local contractors.

 

[S Mc]

This has been bothering me for a very long time. We deal with problems by exterminating the host...and in this case any potential host...

Why haven't we come up with anything better? Are they simply going to remove every tree within the quarantine area?? Am I understanding this correctly? That if I had a tree in my yard that was perfectly fine (never mind what species) and someone else had a tree with ALB in it 1/4 mile away, my tree (along with every other tree within that 1/4 mile area) would have to be removed??

And (this is almost a nonsequitor) WHY A SMOKEJUMPER?????!!

Sylvia

The definition of insanity: doing something the same way repeatedly and each time expecting a different result...

 

[Wortown Mick]

This has been bothering me for a very long time. We deal with problems by exterminating the host...and in this case any potential host...

Why haven't we come up with anything better? Are they simply going to remove every tree within the quarantine area?? Am I understanding this correctly? That if I had a tree in my yard that was perfectly fine (never mind what species) and someone else had a tree with ALB in it 1/4 mile away, my tree (along with every other tree within that 1/4 mile area) would have to be removed??

And (this is almost a nonsequitor) WHY A SMOKEJUMPER?????!!

Sylvia

The definition of insanity: doing something the same way repeatedly and each time expecting a different result...

Yep, you could have a beaautiful healthy spectacular norway maple , and if your neighbors sugarmaple was found to have ALB , say bye to your maple.

At least thats how the paper put it.

And smokejumpers arent arborists.. why are they doin tree inspections lol .
I understand that theyre very specialiazed personnel .. like the spec ops of the tree world but jeez.

Thats like taking a firefighter away from the fire to do structural building inspections

 

[S Mc]

W Mick, are you going to the town meeting on Wednesday? This might be interesting. I was on www.massnrc.org and they have some info there.

Some of the information for this infestation sounded a bit more sane, relatively speaking; such as mandatory removal of infested trees with susceptible exposed host trees needing treatment to prevent further infestation. That at least makes it sound like they will give people options - removal or treatment.

Their previous policy in some instances is like throwing the baby out with the bath water for crying out loud. Such as the report that stated there were 479 trees (in NJ) found to be infested that were removed and another 16,000+ taken out JUST IN CASE. That's ludicrous!!!

Their information states that the beetle has 1 generation/year and that the adult usually stays on the tree from which they emerged or that they may disperse a "short distance". Is that where they are getting the 1/4 mile, do you think?

Also the information says chip or burn. I certainly hope they are considering a biomass recycling effort rather than just burning off thousands of trees.

Hope you keep us posted on what all you see and here there.

Sylvia

 

[treegal1]

how about some tree injections and chitin as a preventative?? maybe that's the way to get ahead of the game????

 

[ddhlakebound]

From what I have heard Worcester has a pretty decent idea of what they have for street trees. As of now the ALB has not reached any forested land. So keep your fingers crossed that some hack doesn't bring infested wood out of the area. I thought I had found an ALB in my area, East of Worcester, a couple weeks back but it turned out to be a Whitespotted Sawyer which infest conifers. I found a couple in my trailer after I had a load of yellow pine in it, they make a clicking sound when you pick them up pretty cool, they burn great in an OWB.

hmmm.....lets follow the chain of logic here, and see where it takes us.

first you're worried that some "hack" will spread the ALB infestation by bringing in comtaminated firewood.

then you're concerned that bugs you found in firewood you brought in may possibly be ALB.

oh, shoot.....lost my train of thought......where was this going?

 

[tomtrees58]

Its certainly related.

The first infestation was on long island, or maybe it was brooklyn. Regardless NYC had some of the first infestations that were dealt with, then it was chicago or jersey. Now us.

Jersey removed some 23,000 trees :jawdrop:

brooklyn is long island tom trees:monkey: :monkey:

 

[Wortown Mick]

No sir brooklyn is not long island.
I was speaking statewise, sort of the same region.

They were places in the article I remembered.

 

[Meadow Beaver]

Are you talking about the emerald ash borer?

 

[Husky137]

No sir brooklyn is not long island.
I was speaking statewise, sort of the same region.

They were places in the article I remembered.

Check a map. Last time I was there, Brooklyn was on the western tip of Long Island. "Speaking Statewise", they are both in New York State.



The whole infestation plan right now in Worcester seems to be a wait and see stance while they figure out exactly how far things have spread. They suspect that the ALB came in through infested pallets at the old Norton plant.