The emerald ash borer has been detected in three new Connecticut towns, Cheshire, Oxford, and Middlebury, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection reported today.

The three towns are in New Haven County where the insect previously was found in July.

The identification has been confirmed by federal regulatory officials in the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine. The emerald ash borer is responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash trees from the mid-west to New York State and south to Tennessee. Ash makes up about 4 percent to 15 percent of Connecticut’s forests and is a common urban tree.

The insects discovered in Cheshire, Oxford, and Middlebury were located as part of a “delimiting” survey being conducted by the experiment station and DEEP to help identify the extent of the infestation, DEEP said in a news release. In addition to the three towns announced today, emerald ash borer has been previously confirmed in five other New Haven County communities: Prospect, Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Waterbury and Bethany. It also has been identified in Dutchess County, N.Y., and Berkshire County, Mass.

In Connecticut, a previously established quarantine regulates the movement of ash logs, ash materials, ash nursery stock, and hardwood firewood from within New Haven County to any area outside of that county. The quarantine applies to only that part of the state and mirrors a federal quarantine also imposed on New Haven County.

In addition to the quarantine, regulations are in effect regulating the movement of firewood from out-of-state into Connecticut or within Connecticut.

For information about the quarantine and the firewood regulations, visit: www.ct.gov/deep/eab or www.ct.gov/caes. For information about the emerald ash borer, visit: www.emeraldashborer.info.