Emerald Ash Borer Moving toward NE PA

Forty-three counties are now under a quarantine intended to prevent the spread of the invasive, tree-killing Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). The PA Dept. of Agriculture’s quarantine area stretches from the Ohio border to Columbia, Lycoming, Northumberland, and Tioga counties in the northern half of the state and Cumberland, Franklin, and Perry farther south. To our east, the pest is in New York’s Hudson River Valley. Emerald Ash Borer beetles can kill an ash tree within three years and so they pose a serious threat to Pennsylvania’s nation-leading hardwoods industry, which contributes nearly $25 billion to the state’s economy.

We all are asked not to move ash nursery, green lumber, and any other ash material, including logs, stumps, roots and branches, from the quarantine area. Because it is difficult to distinguish between species of hardwood firewood, all hardwood firewood and wood chips—including ash, oak, maple and hickory—are considered quarantined. Here are some simple every day ways that you can help protect our urban, suburban, and forested areas:

• Buy and burn only locally cut firewood (within 50 miles of its source).
• Already have firewood from another area? BURN IT. Do not leave it. Do not take it with you.
• Keep an eye out for EAB in your area.

Emerald Ash Borer adults are dark green, one-half inch in length and one-eighth inch wide, and fly only from early May until September. Larvae spend the rest of the year beneath the bark of ash trees. When they emerge as adults, they leave D-shaped holes in the bark about one-eighth inch wide.

People who suspect they have seen Emerald Ash Borer should call the department’s toll-free pest hotline at 1-866-253-7189. For more information, visit Penn State’s EAB website at http://ento.psu.edu/extension/trees-shrubs/emerald-ash-borer; the National EAB website at http://www.emeraldashborer.info/; or contact your local cooperative extension office. In Lackawanna County ask for the Garden Help line at 963-6842 or email LackawannaMG@psu.edu


Terry Schettini, Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lackawanna County