Federal, state, and city officials gathered today in Worcester to announce they have discovered more trees infested with the destructive Asian longhorned beetle.
Last week, officials said they found between 12 and 15 trees in Worcester's Greendale neighborhood infested with the beetle, and designated a circular area with a 1.5-mile radius for more intensive survey work and intervention.
Today, they announced they have found more infested trees and have increased the area of concern to 16 square miles that includes parts of Worcester and the neighboring towns of Holden and West Boylston. They would not say how many new infested trees have been identified.
"Controls are in place so that tree products -- wood -- remain within the area," said Worcester city manager Michael O'Brien.
The beetle, which is considered potentially more destructive than gypsy moths, chestnut blight, and Dutch elm disease combined, is difficult to eradicate because it spends much of its life inside trees. Infested trees must be cut down and chipped or burned. It also is pernicious because of its appetite for a wide variety of tree species -- including maple, birch, horse chestnut, poplar, willow, elm, ash, mimosa, hackberry, sycamore, and mountain ash.
The female chews out a small, football-shaped cavity in the tree bark and then lays her eggs in the summer. The larvae feast on the inner bark, and then bore deeper into the heartwood of the tree before hatching in the spring, exiting the tree-trunk through a dime-sized hole.
The beetle has previously been found in Chicago, New York, and New Jersey. Earlier this year, officials declared victory in eradicating the beetles from the Chicago area, but that may have been premature. This month, federal officials confirmed that one of the shiny, spotted beetles with long antennae had been found in a suburb.Boston Globe Green Blog
