Country: United States

Title: Asian Longhorned Beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis - Confirmed in Suffolk County, Massachusetts; Portions of Suffolk and Norfolk Counties Added to Quarantine Area

Contact:
Christine Markham, APHIS’ National ALB Program Director at (919) 855-7328 or Julie Twardowski, APHIS’ National ALB Program Coordinator, at (301) 734-5332

Report: On July 7, 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed the identification of Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

On July 2, a tree care company submitted a larva collected from a tree they were working on. The following day, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) visited the site and found several infested trees. The larva was positively confirmed as ALB by USDA’s Agricultural Research Services’ Systematic Entomology Laboratory. APHIS officials are coordinating with State and local officials to assess the infestation and initiate regulatory activities.

In response to this detection, APHIS is issuing a Federal Domestic Quarantine Order adding a portion of Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, Massachusetts, to the ALB quarantine area. This action is effective immediately.

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. In August 2008, ALB was found in Worcester County, Massachusetts. In 2008, ALB was declared eradicated in Chicago, Illinois, and Hudson County, New Jersey.

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: July 19, 2010, 9 a.m.