Destructive Asian Longhorned Beetle shipping up to Boston
13 Aug, 2008 LM Direct!From the Boston Globe: Shiny, spotted Asian beetles that attack hardwood trees and have been called potentially more destructive than Dutch elm disease, chestnut blight, and gypsy moths combined have been found in Worcester.
An investigation is ongoing and preliminary, but as many as 15 trees in the northwest part of the city have been confirmed as infested with the Asian Longhorned Beetle.
Now, federal, state, and local officials are working on a more complete survey of a quarantine area with a 1.5-mile radius.
"This is a voracious insect; it really has a potential to be very damaging," Suzanne Bond, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Agriculture, said today. " It destroys a number of species of hardwood trees, and maples are a perferred species. It really has a potential to damage a number of industries if it were allowed to spread unchecked — maple syrup, lumber, tourism."
To eradicate the beetle, officials will have to cut down infested trees and grind or burn them.
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