New York City is an infestation of infestations. Pests crawl over each other into our beds and in between our floorboards, but one particular alien has had been giving the U.S. Department of Agriculture fits since 1996. Not of this country or continent, the Asian Longhorn Beetle may finally be close to facing eradication.
“The ultimate threat of the Asian Longhorn beetle is that it’s an invasive insect pest that destroys healthy hardwood trees,” said Brooklyn Program Director Joseph Gittleman, on the site of an inspection of three trees near Linden and Broadway. "They fly into forest areas and destroy all of our maple species. They attacks plain trees, willows, poplars and elms. Forty percent of our hardwood trees are susceptible to Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation.”
Originally from China and parts of Korea, the Asian Longhorn Beetle has been less of a problem as of late. Despite having a ferocious reputation for destroying millions of trees country-wide over decades, only one tree was lost last year, compared to 2008 when nearly 10 were destroyed. Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill
were particular hot spots.
Despite a more controlled situation now in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island,
Gittleman’s team dedicates itself to constant monitoring year round, especially during the breeding months between June and November.
However, such widespread monitoring gets harder and harder without the help
of residents keeping a watchful eye out for the early signs and allowing Gittleman’s team to walk into people’s private backyards.
“My biggest issue we face is people letting us into their private properties,” said tree climber and beetle hunter Marvin Enoe. “The street trees are readily available to us, and we inspect them regularly, but the issue is backyards we’re not able to get access to.”
Another issue is that they’re tough to spot. With the beetles drilling into the trees way up high into the younger wood, they're almost impossible to see without binoculars. Most of the time, Gittleman’s inspectors walk around neighborhoods, peeking into the trees on their own and calling in the tree-climbing cavalry to investigate suspicious cases.
A lot of the time, they’re false alarms. However, eradication can only be declared faster with more eyes looking around.
“We don’t take offense for people reporting crickets,” said Gittleman. “If you can’t diagnose it on the phone, we’ll go out and look at it ourselves.”
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People can pick up the research on the USDA’s website to help the
cause. In the mean time, if one has an infested tree with bullet-like holes, do not move it unless you want to get slapped with a fine.
“If you’re caught doing that, you could face some fairly severe penalties from New York State,” said Gittleman. “We haven’t seen anyone do any jail time yet, but frankly, that’s reserved for the most egregious cases.”
All is quiet on the frontline for now, which hopefully means Brooklyn will
continue to remain green and New York City gets to deal with one less annoying pest.
“I would like to assume we’re only cleaning up what’s left,” said Enoe. “We just ask people to do what they can.”
