Municipal Tree Board
Asian Long Horned Beetle
On September 13, 1996, the Systematic Entomology Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Service confirmed a specimen sent to them for identification as A. glabripennis. This pest was collected on maple and horse chestnut trees by the New York City Parks and Recreation Department at Green Point in northern Brooklyn County. It was initially identified by E. Richard Hoebeke of Cornell University. The Longhorned beetle is a pest found in China, Japan and Korea. This was the first detection of this pest in the United States.
The larvae of this beetle feed on the heartwood of mature trees, inhibiting the tree's vascular system and ultimately killing it. Adults emerge through three-quarter-inch holes in the bark. Recorded in the literature are the following hardwood hosts in Asia: Ulmus parvifolia (elm), Salix babylonica (willow), and Populus species (poplar). Hosts found in Brooklyn include Aesculus (horsechesnut) and Acer species (Norway, sugar and silver maples). Over 6,000 infested trees have been cut down and destroyed to eradicate ALB from New York and over 1,550 trees in Chicago and almost 23,000 trees in New Jersey.
© 2012
Village Of Medina, Orleans County
