Officials in New York are encouraging swimming pool owners to participate in an annual survey to help track an invasive insect.
During late summer, Asian longhorned beetles emerge as adults and are active outside of their host tree. The goal of the survey is to locate infestations before they cause serious damage to the state’s forests and street trees.
“The best opportunity to eradicate and limit the spread of invasive species is by finding infestations early, when populations are low,” state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a news release. “Swimming pool monitoring is a simple, economical approach to surveying for these pests and gives New Yorkers the chance to take an active role in protecting their communities."
From now until swimming pools are closed for the season, the DEC is asking pool owners to periodically check their filters for insects that resemble Asian longhorned beetles and report suspects either by emailing photos to foresthealth@dec.ny.gov or mailing insects to DEC's Forest Health Diagnostics Lab at 108 Game Farm Road, Delmar, NY 12054, Attn: Liam Somers.
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People without swimming pools can help the effort by reporting signs of Asian longhorned beetles in their communities.
The insects are about 1.5 inches long, black with white spots, and have black and white antennae. They leave perfectly round exit holes about the size of a dime in branches and trunks of host trees and create sawdust-like material called frass that collects on branches and around the base of trees.
The wood-boring beetles are native to Asia and were accidentally introduced to the United States through wood-packing materials. These pests attack a variety of hardwoods, including maples, birches, and willows, among others, and have caused the death of hundreds of thousands of trees across the country.
The DEC said that the state Department of Agriculture and Markets has worked diligently to manage infestations in New York, successfully eradicating them from Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, Islip, and Queens. The beetle is still actively managed in central Long Island, and there are active infestations in Massachusetts, Ohio, and South Carolina.
For more information on the Asian longhorned beetle swimming pool survey, including biology and identification tools, visit the DEC's website.