Efforts are under way in north Louisiana to slow the spread of an invasive species, the emerald ash borer, that threatens to destroy native ash trees. The trees play an important part in bottomland ecosystems and also have an economic value to the timber industry.
“The emerald ash borer was detected for the first time in northern Louisiana in February 2015,” said LSU AgCenter entomologist Rodrigo Diaz. “It is a beetle native to China that has decimated ash trees in the northeastern United States within the last 15 years and has been spreading and moving south.”
Diaz said the emerald ash borer kills ash trees by digging tunnels below the bark, cutting the flow of sap throughout the tree. Over time, all the galleries that the larvae form below the bark will reduce the flow of nutrients, he said. As quickly as six to seven years after the initial infestation the tree will die.
According to Wood Johnson, an entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service, emerald ash borer adults have been collected in Claiborne, Bossier and Webster parishes. It has only been found in trees within Webster Parish. Johnson said it is believed that the borers disperse up to half mile per year on their own. However, others say it may travel up to 10-15 miles per year.
The LSU AgCenter, the U.S. Forest Service, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Health Inspection Service have collaborated to get a biocontrol effort off the ground in north Louisiana.
From the Magnolia Reporter: https://www.magnoliareporter.com/news_and_business/regional_news/article_23da8f14-2d13-11e5-b78a-0f053cb118e9.html