Tree cops hunt for deadly pest

Peering through binoculars, Nicole Carrier and Peter Trenchard scanned two large ash trees growing along Bride Brook Road in Niantic for telltale signs of a tiny jewel-toned but deadly pest, training an especially careful gaze at the deeply latticed bark of the main trunks for D-shaped holes.

"We start at the top of the trees and work our way down," said Carrier, pest survey specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's animal and plant health inspection service. "These are old, very old ash trees, but they are very healthy looking."

She and Trenchard, inspector with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, were part of a 30-member team from five government agencies - three state and two federal - taking part in an exercise Thursday to prepare Connecticut for a possible infestation of the emerald ash borer.

The insect, an invasive species from northern Asia, was first found in Michigan in 2002 and has spread to 13 states, Quebec and Ontario since then, destroying more than 70 million acres of green, white, blue and black ash. Trees die within two years of an infestation, after the adult ash borer lays its eggs on a tree, the larvae hatch and burrow out a network of intersecting, curlicue tunnels that shred the tree's circulation system for water and nutrients.

Since the ash borers are non-native, they have no natural predators in North America, although native woodpeckers and wasps will eat small quantities of the larvae.

"In Michigan, 100 percent of the ash trees over two inches in diameter have died," said Claire Rutledge, entomologist with the experiment station. "The biggest problem is that the trees have very little resistance to the insect. They just don't put up a fight."

In August, ash borers were discovered in Saugerties, N.Y., part of Ulster County just south of Albany, and since then have been found in neighboring Greene County. Surveys are being conducted to determine the full extent of the infestation, said Ralph Scarpino, the state Department of Environmental Protection forestry official who served as spokesman for the ash borer exercise.

"All the (New England) states are preparing for potential infestations," he said.

In Thursday's exercise, foot soldiers from the DEP, the experiment station, the USDA, U.S. Forest Service and the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension Service rehearsed how they would handle an infestation if one were to occur. The scenario went like this:

An ash borer was found in a tree at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, and firewood from woods nearby was taken to a campsite at Rocky Neck State Park in Niantic. The surveyors spent the morning methodically fanning out in a four-mile radius from the infestation site to inspect any ash trees, while Carrier and Trenchard went to Rocky Neck. Not finding any ash trees there, they searched the surrounding area, finding the two along Bride Brook Road. Movement of firewood is a main means of transport for the pest to new locations, although adult ash borers can also fly up to several miles.

"The message is, if you go to a campground, don't bring firewood with you, buy it there," Trenchard said.

Part of efforts to educate the public about the ash borer, in hopes that people will be on the lookout and contact an authority if they spot one, includes a "don't move firewood" campaign. Instead, people are encouraged to buy their firewood locally.

The drill Thursday was just part of newly intensified efforts in Connecticut and the other New England states in response to the ash borer threat. Next month, teams from the agricultural experiment station will hang 900 triangular purple traps on trees in the western two-thirds of the state, home of most of the state's ash trees and the section most vulnerable to spread from the New York infestation. Made of corrugated plastic, the traps are treated with a glue that will capture the insects once they're attracted to the trap by a lure inside scented with ash borer pheromones. The vivid purple color of the traps, which spawned the nickname "Barney traps," also attracts them, said Tom Worthley, extension service forester. People will be seeing the unusual-looking traps along roadsides, in state forests and parks and on some private lands, he said. Crews will check the traps regularly for any ash borers stuck to the glue, and if any are found, a team would be dispatched to begin combing the surrounding area.

For another part of the surveillance effort, colonies of the smoky-winged beetle bandit, a native, ground-dwelling, non-stinging wasp, will be checked for ash borers captured and killed by the adults as food for their offspring, Rutledge said. Volunteers are being trained to help, she said. The wasps will prey on the ash borers, but not in numbers great enough to keep an infestation at bay, she added.

Victoria Smith, deputy state entomologist with the experiment station, said that 2 percent to 5 percent of the state's forest trees are ash. But preserving the species is important for several reasons, she and others said. Ash trees tend to be hearty, so they are often planted along city streets and in parks for shade and ornament. In addition, more than 40 types of native caterpillars, moths, spiders and other insects depend on ash trees for habitat and food.

"If we have 43 different insects dependent on ash trees, there is some kind of bird or fish that depends on those insects," Worthley said.

Ash trees also produce an economically important hardwood, used for baseball bats, tool handles, canoe paddles and furniture because of its strength.

"It's all about preserving biodiversity," Smith said.

j.benson@theday.com

In you're on the lookout for the emerald ash borer:

• It's a metallic green beetle about one-half inch long and one-eighth inch wide.

• Symptoms of infestation can include dead branches near the top of the tree; leafy shoots growing from the lower trunk; D-shaped exit holes and bark splits exposing tunnels; woodpecker activity as the birds try to get at the larvae.

• If a tree is infested, tree removal and wood disposal is recommended. No pesticides are available to eliminate an infestation, although some pre-treatments that must be re-applied regularly can prevent it. Use of these is only recommended in areas with a known infestation nearby.

• To report a suspected sighting of the emerald ash borer, call the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at (203) 974-8474 or send an e-mail to: CAES.StateEntomologist@ct.gov.

• For information, visit: www.emeraldashborer.info.