Emerald Ash Borer Discovered in Four Additional Northwest Ohio Locations

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio– Ohio Agriculture Director Fred Dailey today announced the discovery of four additional Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) infested areas, two in eastern Lucas County and two in northern Wood County. Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) surveyors are working to determine the extent of each infestation.

Ohio Department of Agriculture officials have eradicated the Emerald Ash Borer from some counties in the state, but continues to monitor the pest's prresence throughout the state.

In Lucas County, infested trees were found in the Maumee Bay State Park and near the intersection of Brown Road and Norden Road. In Wood County, EAB was discovered in Cedar Creek Preserve and near the intersection of Dry Creek and Tracy Road. All of the newly discovered infested trees are within the state’s already-quarantined area.

“We’ve been aggressively eradicating Emerald Ash Borer at our farthest outlying sites to contain Ohio’s infestations and protect the landscape in the Great Lakes Region,” Dailey said. “These trees were lightly infested and contained to the tops of the ash trees, which indicates that we are most likely looking at the leading edge of the infestation.”

In Maumee Bay State Park, a team of U.S. Department of Agriculture tree climbers discovered EAB in the tops of several ash trees. ODA officials have destroyed the infested trees. Next they will girdle ash trees within a 200-yard radius (Trees are girdled by removing a ring of bark to make the tree more attractive to EAB). These steps will help reduce the known population and keep any residual borers from spreading to other areas until the department can fully eradicate the area.

To date, EAB has been identified in Defiance, Franklin, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Lucas, and Wood counties. The pest was first discovered in Ohio in 2003. Since then, ODA has successfully eradicated the pest from Franklin and Defiance county sites. Officials do, however, continue to monitor them.
 
Ash trees infested with EAB will typically die in three to five years. The pest belongs to a group of insects known as metallic wood-boring beetles. Adults are dark metallic green in color, 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, and when they emerge as adults, leave D-shaped exit holes in the bark about one-eighth inch wide.
 
For a map of the latest infestations, go to www.ohioagriculture.gov/eab, or call 1-888-OHIO-EAB.