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News
Garden Column - Emerald Ash Borer
Monitoring
Posted 7 March 2009
 By Mark Shour
Extension Entomologist
ISU Extension Service
Tornadoes at Parkersburg and Little Sioux Boy Scout Camp. flooding in
Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Charles City, Elkader, Iowa City, Muscatine,
Waterloo and adjacent areas. Iowa was hard-hit in 2008 with natural
disasters.
Many reading this article received calls from friends and relatives
asking if they were affected by these situations. Some news
stories
last year in our state were terrible.
In contrast, reports on how Iowans responded to these situations were
exemplary. Neighbors helping neighbors. Iowa National Guard units
assisting at several locations. people of all ages and from various
places reaching out to others needing a helping hand. Yes, Iowans
listen to news media and act appropriately.
Paying Attention
Such is the case with the educational outreach on the emerald ash
borer, Agrilus planipennis. The news media have done several stories on
this destructive, exotic beetle from Asia in the past five years and
Iowans are doing their part. Collaborative partners (Iowa Department of
Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources,
USDA APHIS Plant Protection Quarantine, and Iowa State University
Extension) have received hundreds of telephone calls and emails asking
for more information about this pest or to report suspect ash trees.
Private land owners, park officials, municipal workers and others have
permitted the collaborative partners access to their ash trees for
emerald ash borer (EAB) monitoring activities. Arborist groups, garden
clubs, city plant boards, colleges/universities and public works
organizations have held special meetings to discuss EAB and its
potential impact on Iowa.
EAB Refresher
The emerald ash borer is a small dark metallic green beetle, about as
long as Mr. Lincoln's image on a penny. Adult beetles produce minor
feeding damage to ash leaflets, but it is the flat, white, legless
larval stage that kills ash trees by cutting through the plant's
internal plumbing just beneath the bark. Trees affected display various
symptoms including the thinning/dieback of branches in the crown, water
sprouts (epicormic shoots) along the trunk and major branches,
"D-shaped" exit holes cut through bark and extensive woodpecker feeding
on the tree.
This pest was first discovered in Detroit, Mich., in 2002. Unknowingly,
people have transported EAB into Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia by moving
infested firewood, landscape trees and other ash wood products. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture has placed these states under quarantine
in an effort to slow the spread of this insect.
2008 Monitoring
Results
Collaborative partners worked on three fronts in searching for EAB:
visual surveys, sentinel trees and experimental traps. A total of 235
campgrounds (private, county, state and federal) in 55 counties were
identified as high risk sites and 1,269 ash trees were visually
inspected. Although the number of sites was less than in 2007, the
flooding episodes prevented access to many campgrounds in 2008.
Sentinel trees (containerized ash trees or girdled standing ash trees)
were established across Iowa. A total of 401 trees (129 containerized
and 272 standing trees) were bark peeled during the fall/early winter
of 2008.
Iowa participated in two types of survey efforts using the large purple
sticky traps provided by USDA APHIS PPQ. The national survey effort
placed 192 traps in ash trees in 30 counties; these were high risk
sites such as campgrounds. A delimiting survey was set up in extreme
eastern Iowa (Dubuque, Jackson, Clinton, Cedar, Scott, Muscatine,
Louisa and Des Moines counties) on a 1.5 mile x 1.5 mile grid. A
total
of 452 purple traps were used for this survey.
Fortunately, no survey effort discovered EAB in Iowa during 2008.
This
does not mean that the insect is not present in the state, but there is
a decreased likelihood that EAB has established here.
Plans for 2009
We have an excellent opportunity to be prepared ahead of the invasion
of EAB. Things that can be done to help Iowa prepare are:
ASSIST collaborative partners in their survey efforts by permitting
access to property
VOLUNTEER to help your community develop a tree inventory
PROTECT your trees from mechanical injuries; WATER during dry periods
REPORT suspect ash trees or beetles to ISU Extension Entomology (515)
294-1101 or the State Entomologist (515) 725-1470
TALK with city managers, county officials, state legislators, and U.S.
congressional members. Ask them if EAB preventive efforts are included
in fiscal budgets
ENCOURAGE local firewood purchases when friends or relatives come to
Iowa for camping, fishing or hunting.
RESIST the urge to apply a preventive insecticide at this time, since
EAB is not known to be in Iowa
KEEP INFORMED through ISU Extension offices and specific Web sites, www.extension.iastate.edu/pme/EmeraldAshBorer.html
or www.emeraldashborer.info/
.
(photo courtesy of www.forestryimages.org)
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