Fourth or Fifth known U.S. infestation has been found in Worcester. 2 of the 5 places they have been eradicated; Worcester is just starting the process:
Dramatic expansion of the quarantine area to 16 square miles -- within which they plan to destroy all the infested trees and treat the rest with pesticides:
We've had these here in New York City. Trees in the quarantine area must be disposed of by specialists. They can't be chipped in the usual way. The city sent out brochures to educate the public to identify and report infested trees. I had some trees shading my previous garden and was always looking for the beetles, hoping to find a way to have the city cut them down for free.
Abigail, 8 kids grown, 1 ripening and 8 grandkids- what a harvest!
Posts: 621 | Location: Far Rockaway, New York | Registered: July 17, 2002
The adjoining New Jersey communities of Linden, Carteret, Rahway and Woodbridge had to cut down a total of 21,520 trees over several years in an infested area of roughly 25 square miles, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures.
... “If they see an exit hole, they have to take down all hardwood trees within a quarter mile of that particular tree..."
The resulting wood chips were then burned in a local garbage incinerator, ...
More than 12,000 trees in Linden also were treated with the insecticide imidacloprid through trunk injections or soil treatments, according to the USDA. In the entire infestation area, more than 27,000 trees were treated with the chemical, which also is used in the lawn care industry to kill grubs and in some pet treatments to kill fleas
I wonder how government mandatory pesticide applications affect certified organic farms? There's probably few if any in these fairly urban areas mentioned so far.
I presume that injecting a tree would keep the pesticide out of the soil- especially since most farmers don't plant directly under trees.
When a company was hired to restore the state land behind us, they took out the invasive trees they couldn't cut down by either injecting or painting on an herbicide. They were careful with the herbicide they used for the Japanese knotweed and other invasive plants. They told me to flag my fence with red tape and they were careful to keep the stuff away from my garden. Now there is a beautiful meadow out back with more native plants returning every year.
Abigail, 8 kids grown, 1 ripening and 8 grandkids- what a harvest!
Posts: 621 | Location: Far Rockaway, New York | Registered: July 17, 2002
Thanks for this interesting post. We lost are Mimosa tree this past year and the trumpit vine that was growing along with it. We have had also many trees fall this past year. Makes me wonder if the Asian Long Horn Beetles can be out are way. We are on the west side of Jersey about 60 miles west of Rahway. I will have to go out and take a look. I think a Mimosa tree is a short lived, but the Trumpit vine seems to never die. The shoots from the trumpet vine are still there and doing great
Experts in Massachusetts say they cannot cut down the trees until the frost kills the adult beetles. The trees will be ground up, a process that generates enough heat to kill any eggs or larvae. The wood chips can then be used as mulch or burned for energy.
So it sounds like the whole idea behind grinding the trees is to...
Compost them to kill the bugs!
Ok, not so organic in total -- the latest plan seems to be to cut down and grind any infected trees (1,800 in 62 sq. mi. so far identified) and treat with injected pesticides all other suspceptible species within a 1/4 mile radius of an infected tree...which is going to be darn near every hardwood in the city. In woodland areas (conservation land, etc) the tactic will be to cut down and grind all susceptible trees within 1/8th mile of an infected tree. Not sure if they're going to inject all the trees too or not.
