Official Pest Report
Official Pest Reports are provided by National Plant Protection Organizations within the NAPPO region. These Pest Reports are intended to comply with the International Plant Protection Convention's Standard on Pest Reporting, endorsed by the Interim Commission on Phytosanitary Measures in March 2002.
Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, confirmed in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, confirmed in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Country: United States
Title: Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, confirmed in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Contact:
Christine Markham, APHIS’ National ALB Program Director, (919) 855-7328 or Julie Twardowski, APHIS’ National ALB Program Coordinator, (301) 734-5332
Report:
On August 5, 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the identification of Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in Worcester County, Massachusetts. This is the first detection of ALB in the State of Massachusetts.
On August 1, 2008, a citizen reported seeing and collecting ALB at her home in Worcester. The following day, APHIS’ State Plant Health Director (SPHD) in Massachusetts visited the site with the Massachusetts State Survey Coordinator where they found several infested trees and collected specimens. The specimens were positively confirmed as ALB by the Agricultural Research Services’ Systematic Entomology Laboratory.
APHIS officials are coordinating with U.S. Forest Service, State, and local officials to assess the infestation, initiate regulatory activities, and determine the initial response.
ALB is a destructive wood-boring pest of maple and other hardwoods. This pest was first discovered in the United States in Brooklyn, New York, in August 1996. ALB was later detected in Chicago, Illinois, in July 1998. In October 2002, the beetle was found in Hudson County, New Jersey, and then in Middlesex and Union Counties, New Jersey, in August 2004. After four years of negative surveys, ALB was recently declared eradicated in Chicago, Illinois, and Hudson County, New Jersey.
On August 1, 2008, an adult ALB was detected in the city of Deerfield, Illinois, by an alert citizen. The site of the detection is approximately 12 miles north of the northern boundary of the previously regulated area of Chicago. No infested trees have been identified to date in association with the Deerfield detection.
Under IPPC Standards, Anoplophora glabripennis is considered a pest that is present, only in some areas and under eradication in the United States
Posted Date: Aug. 14, 2008, 9 a.m.