DES MOINES, Iowa – On Monday state officials confirmed the presence of emerald ash borer in five southern Iowa counties: Appanoose, Lucas, Mahaska, Marion and Monroe.
In all, 18 Iowa counties are infested with the half-inch long insect that Iowa DNR expects will cost the state $27 million with the loss of its ash trees.
DNR State Forester Paul Tauke says the infestation announced Monday was probably in place for five years before its discovery. He believes it is noteworthy as the first rural infestation found in Iowa, and as one that covers such a large geographic area.
“[Emerald ash borer] populations are beginning to reach that point where we’re going to see a more rapid spread in the future,” Tauke explains, “and we’re going to see, probably, counties and areas being added to the infested list of areas at a much quicker rate than we have over the current period of time, or the past.”
There’s no known way to completely eradicate emerald ash borer, which Tauke says will continue to make its way across Iowa for the next 15 to 20 years.
“When it’s done, probably 99.9 percent of all the ash trees that are untreated will be dead,” says Tauke. “It’s possible there may be a few in rural areas, a very few that either, you know, they’re just in an area that EAB never got to, or perhaps they might have some sort of resistance, but if what has happened in other states that have been dealing with EAB much longer than Iowa has, holds true for Iowa, you know you would expect maybe less than .1 percent of the ash population, untreated, to survive, if that.”
At that point, Tauke says most of the only surviving ash trees will have weathered the swarm due to ongoing treatments, which he adds may be spaced out every few years, once the emerald ash borer population crashes.
To hear more about emerald ash borer’s spread across Iowa, click the audio player above this story.
Monday’s press release from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is reproduced below.
DES MOINES, Iowa (IDALS) – Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has been positively identified in Appanoose, Lucas, Mahaska, Marion and Monroe counties in southern Iowa. EAB kills all ash tree species and is considered to be one of the most destructive tree pests ever seen in North America.
The discovery of this series of infestations started when forestry contractor found many dead ash trees with heavy woodpecker flecking while completing a timber stand improvement project on privately-owned woodland on the far eastern edge of Lucas County. The infestation appears to have been in place for several years. The larvae were located only 3/8 of a mile from Monroe County. EAB team members continued to examine trees in the area and additional larvae were found in ash tree on public property in Monroe County, near the Lucas site.
In Marion County larvae were found in a heavily-flecked ash tree on State property on the edge of Marysville. In Appanoose County larvae were found in a tree along train tracks in Moravia. And, in Mahaska County larvae were collected from a tree on private property on the north side of Eddyville.
Eighteen Iowa counties now have confirmed EAB infestations. A statewide quarantine, issued on Feb. 4, 2014, remains in place and restricting the movement of hardwood firewood, ash logs, wood chips and ash tree nursery stock out of Iowa into non-quarantined areas of other states.
?Woodpecker-flecked ash trees are a great calling card when investigating an insect infestation,” said State Entomologist Robin Pruisner of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. “The damage symptoms on ash trees are very visible during the winter months. Woodpeckers feed on more than EAB, but when we find woodpeckers focusing on ash trees in an area, it?s a red flag that begs for further investigation.?
?We urge Iowans to be vigilant, reporting suspicious symptoms in Counties that are not yet known to be infested to a member of the Iowa EAB Team. And we continue to urge citizens to keep firewood local, don?t pack a pest to a new area,? said Mike Kintner, IDALS EAB and Gypsy Moth Coordinator.
The Iowa EAB Team provides EAB diagnostic assistance to landowners and includes officials from Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service and the USDA Forest Service.
The Iowa EAB Team strongly cautions Iowans not to transport firewood across county or state lines, since the movement of firewood throughout Iowa or to other states poses the greatest threat to quickly spread EAB and other plant pests. Most EAB infestations in the United States have been started by people unknowingly moving infested firewood, nursery plants or sawmill logs. The adult beetle also can fly short distances, approximately 2 to 5 miles.
The next window for preventive treatment measures (trunk injection, soil injection, soil drench, or basal trunk sprays) will open early spring 2015 (mid-April to mid-May). If a landowner is interested in protecting a valuable and healthy ash tree within 15 miles of a known infestation, they should use the winter months to have landscape and tree service companies bid on work, and these bids can be reviewed before next spring.
Please contact Iowa EAB Team members to have suspicious looking trees checked in counties not currently known to be infested. The State of Iowa will continue to track the movement of EAB on a county-by-county basis. Before a county can be officially recognized as infested, proof of a reproducing population is needed and an EAB must be collected and verified by USDA entomologists.
