The Georgia Forestry Commission this weekend is launching a two-pronged offensive against invasive insects that threaten the region’s magnificent stands of trees; the evidence is hundreds of small boxes being hung on trees around the state.
The threats are the emerald ash borer, a tiny green beetle about a quarter-inch long that in as little as two years can kill an ash tree by boring channels under its bark; and the gypsy moth, whose larvae can strip entire hardwood forests of their leaves. Oak trees are particularly vulnerable.
The Forestry Commission is working with the Georgia Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and Trees Atlanta to place about 800 ash borer traps around the state. Sixteen will be in the metro area.
The box-like traps aren’t intended to stop the critters, but to be early warning devices.
Neither the emerald ash borer nor gypsy moth is known to be currently present in Georgia, and people like Chip Bates, forest health coordinator for the Forestry Commission, want to keep things that way.
“We try to get people to understand that the [emerald] beetle normally is moved into a state by man,” typically on firewood carried by campers and on people’s vehicles, Bates said.
Most of the traps are going into state and federal parks, campgrounds and rest areas in the I-75, I-85 and I-95 corridors.
“We’re concentrating our efforts on these high-risk areas,” Bates said.
Campers, he said, are urged “use local firewood sources when you come into our state parks. Don’t bring fire wood with you. That’s a huge issue. And do not move firewood from an infested area into our state.”
People also should wash their vehicles if traveling from an infested area, officials said.
The emerald ash borer was accidentally introduced into the United States from Asia in the 1990s and is now present in 15 states. The closest infestation is in the Knoxville area of Tennessee, only 55 miles from the Georgia state line, Bates said.
“Once you find a true emerald ash borer infestation in a county, it can become a quarantine issue where no ash product, lumber, boards, whatever can be moved out of that county … a rapid response to keep it confined to one area,” Bates said.
“We haven’t found a viable eradication method yet,” though insecticides can be used to try to keep the beetles from spreading, he said.
Also, about 3,000 gypsy moth traps are being set out in 11 counties around the state; the closest ones to Atlanta are Coweta, Henry and Jasper counties. Chatham and Effingham counties in the Savannah area also are getting traps.
The nearest current gypsy moth infestation is in Virginia, Bates said. Like the ash borer, gypsy moth egg masses typically travel on firewood transported by campers.
“If we catch multiple gypsy moths in a trap or in one particular location, the second year we’ll come back and do much heavier trapping” to pinpoint the infestation, Bates said. Aerial spraying with insecticides could follow.
Past gypsy moth outbreaks in White, Fannin and Rockdale counties were successfully eradicated, and while there are no known infestations currently in Georgia, the threat is always present, officials said.
More information on the insects can be found at the Forestry Commission website.
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