Quarantine for ash tree pest expanded to 5 Tenn. counties

With Emerald Ash Borer discovered in traps here in Rutherford County as well as Franklin, Marshall, Trousdale and Williamson counties, these areas are now under restriction for the movement of ash trees and ash tree products.

The Emerald Ash Borer is considered to be one of the most destructive tree pests ever seen in North America and environmentalists say it’s killing our Ash Trees. The Tennessee Department of Agriculture and USDA-APHIS are working together to identify infestation using purple box traps placed in ash trees across the state.

That already happened in Toledo, Ohio where a dozens of lush, green ash trees on a tree-lined road died within three years due to the invasive EAB. If the pests approach the trap, they get stuck on an adhesive that coats the outside. Since its appearance in the United States in 2002 (in Michigan), the Emerald Ash Borer has gone on to kill millions of ash trees across the U.S. and Canada.

The traps were placed in trees in late May or early June and the lure lasts 60 days. Mahaffey said that the traps will be removed in late August or early September when there is a rare activity from the side of borers. Other traps are present in Littleton, Centennial and at Chatfield State Park.

People can take action such as using insecticide, but even that is premature. However, given the fact that it is extremely easy for the borer to be migrate along with various wood transports, it is going to be a very tough fight to put an end to its expansion. Tennessee now has 46 counties under state and federal Emerald Ash Borer quarantine. This has led the US Department of Agriculture to place traps at different places.

“I guess it’s an honest disclosure that traps don’t work as well as we would like them to”, Pottorff said.