Keeping Track of the Asian Longhorned Beetle, a Threat to Valuable Maple Trees

Online, May 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Researchers from Penn State, the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will join forces to place 500 traps for Asian longhorned beetles (ALB) in Massachusets.

The traps will help the determine if areas previously cleared of infested trees remain free of ALB, and will also help delimit quarantine boundaries established by APHIS after a large infestation was discovered in Worcester in 2008. Traps will be placed in the lower canopy of maple trees in the communities of Worcester, West Boylston, Boylston, Shrewsbury and Holden in early June and monitored through the early fall.

The traps will have a lure in them that is a combination of an ALB produced pheromone and green leaf maple odors (plant volatiles). Pheromones are chemicals produced and used by animals to communicate with each other and are often specific to a species. In the past, traps used a combination of pheromone and plant volatile odors that attracted only females. This year researchers will change the blend of plant volatiles so that the lures should also attract male ALB.

The beetles pose a serious threat to hardwood trees such as maple, boxelder, horsechestnut, elm, and poplar, and ALB infestations have been devastating for some communities. In Worcester, nearly 20,000 infested trees and 10,250 high-risk trees have been removed to date; the majority of these trees are maples.

"Helping the eradication program know where to look to find infested trees so they can be removed is critical to reducing the spread of the Asian longhorned beetle," said to Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology at Penn State. "A trapping program for detection of ALB will ultimately help to reduce the number of trees we lose."

The development of an effective trap is a significant step forward in controlling the spread of ALB. When a beetle is found inside a trap, nearby trees will be examined to determine the source of the infestation. In the past, the only way to detect ALB infestations was to examine trees for signs of the beetles, such as exit holes and egg laying sites on the trunk and branches. Traps allow a larger area to be evaluated than could be covered in APHIS's tree-by-tree assessment. Producing an effective trap for ALB has been a goal for APHIS since the beetle was first identified in New York in 1996.

Trapping in previous years has been used primarily to help identify the best trap and lure. This year, the expanded trapping program will also serve as a demonstration project for the Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program in Worcester, which may use the traps as part of the eradication program in the future.

The project is being funded by grants to Penn State from the U.S. Forest Service and the Alphawood Foundation. In addition to the partnership of researchers from the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station and Penn State, the following are collaborators on this project: the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, APHIS; the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources, and the Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program in Worcester.

For more information on the project, contact Hoover at 814-836-6369 or by email at [email protected]. For more information on ALB, visit the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management's Biosecurity web page at http://extension.psu.edu/ipm/biosecurity.