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State sets out traps to determine if the destructive emerald ash borer is in Vermont
By Nancy Remsen
May 25, 2010
BOLTON — A purple triangular prism dangled from a string in a tree alongside U.S. 2, a curiosity to a regular commuter.
Beneath the prism, a sign explained it was a bug trap put up by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture — one of 480 traps, it turns out, that will hang in eight counties this spring.
These sticky purple prisms are Vermont’s early warning system against the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle native to Asia that first turned up near Detroit in 2002 and has killed millions of ash trees in the Midwest.
“It is an insect that is going to do to ash what Dutch elm disease did to the elm,” warned Jon Turmel, state entomologist. The good news is that emerald ash borers have yet to be detected in Vermont, Turmel said.
“We are monitoring for it, hoping it doesn’t show,” he said. But they are getting close, he acknowledged, noting reports of the tiny, shiny green beetles 17 miles south of Montreal in neighboring Quebec as well as western New York.
The state, aided by about $28,000 in federal funding, is hanging hundreds of purple traps in or near ash trees throughout Chittenden, Addison, Essex, Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orleans and Washington counties, Turmel said.
The beetles are attracted to the purple color of the traps as well as a nontoxic chemical on the surface. The traps are very sticky so the beetles that land will get stuck — permanently.
“People shouldn’t handle them,” Turmel said because the surface is so gummy “they will wish they didn’t.” He added, however, they don’t attract or pose a risk to birds.
State officials will monitor all 480 traps once during the summer and again in the fall before they come down. They hung and monitored 150 similar traps last year.
Turmel said the beetles are strong fliers, and could wing their way into Vermont.
A more likely mode of transportation is aboard a load of firewood, he said. Bans on transporting ash firewood and other ash wood products already exist in infected areas of Canada and the Midwest.
Campers bringing their own firewood to campsites have unwittingly helped spread emerald ash borers, so Vermont state parks prohibit campers from bringing in wood from more than 50 miles away from a park, said Barbara Burns, state forest health coordinator.
In the Green Mountain National Forest, out-of-state firewood is banned unless it is kiln-dried and still in its original packaging.
Sooner or later
Adult beetles don’t do the damage, at least not directly. They just munch a few ash leaves. It’s their larvae that bore into the inner bark.
“What they do is girdle the tree so it can’t transport water and food,” Turmel said.
“The emerald ash borer is a tree killer; 100 percent of the trees die,” Burns said.
About 5 percent of Vermont’s forest is ash, officials said. It’s common along streets in Vermont cities and towns, including Burlington.
“For years we have been recommending ash as a street tree,” Turmel said, noting it tolerates abuse from people and road salt. “There are a lot of ash in Burlington.”
Warren Spinner, city arborist in Burlington, confirmed that 700 green ash grown in public rights of way throughout the city. There are plenty more in parks and backyards, he said.
“Bottom line, if the pest does get here, which it will at some point, we will be involved in a lot of ash removal,” Spinner said.
Based on conversations with his counterparts in Michigan and other areas hard hit by the emerald ash borer infestation, Spinner predicts, “It is going to be in our area for three or four years before we see it.”
“We are always looking for this pest when we are up in the trees pruning,” Spinner added.
The state Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation will field two crews to inspect ash trees in about 60 state and federal camping areas, Burns said. The funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. “We are really trying to make sure nothing has gotten started.”
Vermonters involved in the forest products industry also are on the lookout for signs of the borer, said Ed Larson, a lobbyist for the association. “We’re nervous.”
“Ash is a very important segment of our forest,” Larson said. “It produces a nice timber stem of good value and it grows in a variety of sites.”
Besides its use as firewood, ash goes into hockey sticks, bats and handles for tools because it is strong and durable, Larson said. It’s also a good substitute for oak in furniture.
“We’re not excited about quarantines,” Larson said, noting the restrictions some states have already imposed. “It’s a real disruption on the movement of forest products.” He said some saw mill owners have talked of kiln drying, which kills the beetle, to ensure their wood products could travel.
Turmel said the beetle’s arrival in Vermont is probably inevitable.
“There is a lot of research on control,” Turmel said. “We are hoping to retard it from coming into Vermont so they will come up with something that will keep the population down.”
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100525/NEWS02/100525001/State-sets-out-traps-to-determine-if-the-destructive-emerald-ash-borer-is-in-Vermont
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