EMERALD ASH BORER (Agrilus Planipennis) confirmed in New York State

The dreaded Emerald Ash Borer, or EAB (Agrilus Planipennis) has been positively identified for the first time in NYS in an ash tree from a location near Randolph, in western Cattaraugus County. The specimens were recovered from infested trees at a highway interchange by ARS researchers out of Ithaca, New York who were traveling through the area and checked the trees that appeared damaged. The trees appear to have been infested for some time.

Rick Hoebeke of the Cornell University Department of Entomology made the initial determination and forwarded the specimen to the USDA-ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory for final official identification.

Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)

Why should New Yorkers care about invasive species? Invasive species affect the lives of all New Yorkers and we pay a significant price to deal with them. Invasive species damage our crops and infrastructure, cause power failures and food and water shortages, harm the environment, and cause human and livestock diseases. For example, controlling Asian Longhorned Beetles in New York City and Long Island has cost between $13 million and $40 million per year since 1996. Zebra mussels have caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage in the Great Lakes since their introduction in 1988.