Ohio Ag Department Expands Regulated Area in EAB Quarantine

Discovery of the Emerald Ash Borer in Allen Township forces state to expand the regulated area.

Published April 25, 2005

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio – Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Fred Dailey announced an expansion of a regulated area, as part of an existing state quarantine, to prevent the further spread of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), an exotic insect pest from Asia that attacks ash trees.

 

The expanded area now prohibits residents from moving ash trees, branches, wood chips, bark, and non-coniferous firewood out of Allen Township in Hancock County. Violators face fines up to $4,000.

 

“Our quarantine expansion is in response to a recent Emerald Ash Borer find in Allen Township,” Dailey said. “We are aggressively battling EAB near Allen Township and will be moving into that area soon. In the meantime, we’re asking local residents to assist us in halting the spread of this devastating pest by not moving firewood and abiding by the regulations.”

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The Ohio Department of Agriculture has been working to eradicate the emerald ash borer from the quarantined, shaded areas above since its discovery in 2003. Map: www.ohioagriculture.gov.

All citizens are restricted from moving ash-tree materials and non-coniferous firewood out of Allen Township in Hancock County and out of already existing regulated areas:

  • Lucas County west of County Road 202 (North Curtice Road)
  • Fulton County east of State Route 109
  • Henry County east of State Route 109 and north of the Maumee River.
  • Wood County: Lake Township east of Tracy Road and north of State Route 795
  • Wood County: Henry Township
  • Defiance County: Hicksville Township

An Ohio ban also prohibits the movement of ash-tree materials and non-coniferous firewood from Michigan to Ohio. Ash-tree materials can enter any of Ohio’s regulated areas from non-quarantined areas, but once taken in, they cannot leave as they become regulated.

To date, EAB infestations have been identified in Defiance, Franklin, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Lucas, and Wood counties. The pest was first identified in Ohio in Lucas County in 2003. Since then, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) has eradicated the pest from Franklin County and continues to eradicate and regulate in the additional six counties.

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The emerald ash borer (EAB) is known for its striking green metallic color. The pest, which has claimed thousands of acres of ash trees in the United States leaves a D-shaped hole when it emerges from the tree bark. Their season to spread from tree to tree will begin by next week. The EAB flies from May to September. Larvae, which have triangular body segments. eat serpentine paths in the phloem beneath the host tree's bark.

Currently, the department is eradicating infestation sites in and around the Oregon and East Toledo area in Lucas County and the North Baltimore area in Wood County.

Ash trees infested with the EAB 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 more information on Emerald Ash Borer or for a map of Ohio’s regulated areas, go to the department’s Web site, www.ohioagriculture.gov/eab, or call 888/OHIO-EAB.

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