Trees are important to the people of the USA. The Emerald Ash Borer has presented itself as a very damaging insect. It's damage became apparent in Michigan in 2003 and the spread of the lousy bug continues to grow into the year 2018.
The map above can be found at this link (click here). The statement the regulation has outlived it's usefulness is bizarre and completely out of touch with current scientific findings. How can the USDA remove regulations of a tree borer that continues to grow in range? It doesn't make sense.
"Ash Borer Information Network" (click here)
What the heck is the USDA thinking? Are they thinking? Or is this someone's bonus to get rid of regulation just for the sake of getting rid of regulation. This BUG does a heck of a lot of damage and the best hope of ending it is an abundance of woodpeckers.
APHIS (click here) is proposing to remove the domestic quarantine regulations for the emerald ash borer (EAB). Eliminating this regulation is in keeping with USDA’s goal of reducing regulations that have outlived their usefulness. The proposal would end APHIS’ domestic regulatory activities, which includes actions such as issuing permits, certificates and compliance agreements, making site visits, and conducting investigations of suspected violations, and instead direct all available resources toward managing the pest. APHIS remains committed to controlling this invasive pest and wants to conduct more research and release a greater number of biological control agents—tiny stingless wasps that are natural predators of the EAB—since biocontrol has shown the most promise for stopping EAB’s spread....
If Trump wanted to put more tariffs on China, he could have started with the exporting of their bugs. There are more lousy bugs and invasive species of ANYTHING LIVING that comes from Asia that anyone can point to as biological warfare.
Originally from Asia, (click here) the emerald ash borer (EAB) was first discovered in the Detroit area in 2002. It is believed to have entered the country on wooden packing materials from China. The bright metallic-green beetle may be smaller than a dime, but it is capable of taking down ash trees thousands of times its size. Adults are typically ½ inch long and ⅛ inch wide. Eggs are extremely small—approximately 1/25 inch—and are reddish-brown in color. Larvae are white, flat-headed borers with distinct segmentation.
Adults usually emerge in mid- to late-May from infestations to the trees during the previous year (earlier if the weather is warm), with females laying their eggs shortly after. The larvae bore into the ash tree and feed under the bark, leaving tracks visible underneath. The feeding disrupts the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients, resulting in dieback and bark splitting....
Woodpecker feeding: (click here) Woodpeckers eat emerald ash borer larvae that are under the bark. This usually happens higher in the tree where the emerald ash borer prefers to attack first. If there are large numbers of larvae under the bark the woodpecker damage can make it look like strips of bark have been pulled off of the tree. This is called "flecking." An example of this is shown below.This is a Pileated Woodpecker which is a fairly large bird. As you can see it is aggressively eating the ash borer larvae under the bark of the tree. The woodpeckers do damage when they eat from the tree, but, in this case when the woodpeckers find the larvae the tree is already damaged and compromised. Killing the Emerald Ash Borer at the larval stage is the best any arborist can hope for and I believe any woodpecker variety is more of a friend than enemy in getting rid of the lousy bug.
