Asian Longhorned Beetle Survey?

[Pat Kiewicz]

Yesterday's mail brought something unexpected: a "Dear Citizen" letter addressed to "Mr. & Mrs. Kiewicz" from the USDA asking us to survey our yard and neighborhood street trees for signs of Asian longhorned beetles.

I don't know why this came selectively (not to 'occupant' at street address), but the letter is Michigan specific.

I wonder if this survey effort was prompted by the "unusual and widespread maple problems" being found locally this summer. I remember that the Emerald Ash Borer infestation smouldered for several years as an unknown "ash decline" so this campaign to recruit citizen scouts for Asian Longhorned beetles may be a particularly good idea (maple trees being #1 on the list of host trees).

Anybody else get a letter from the USDA?

The USDA has a Beetle Buster's web-page here:

'Norway maples with wilting branches in Ann Arbor, Plymouth and Canton' is here: the current MSU Landscape CAT newsletter here: 's hoping that there are no Asian longhorned beetles in Michigan...

[Mark Anderson]

We had a really bad Asian Lonhorned Beetle problem about 10 or so years ago here in Chicago and it has finally subsided. Entire blocks in old neighborhoods lost some very old shade trees. These neighborhoods looked very different after they cleared all the trees. Even though the city planted replacements it will take decades for them to get large enough to shade the streets again.

Anyway, people in the infected areas knew of the Longhorned Asian beetle years before they found out it was a problem and trees began dying. The beetles would be flying all over the place. Had someone been alert about this beetle the problem might have been mitigated and thwarted before it got so out of hand that all the trees in entire neighborhoods had to be removed. It's probably good you got that letter and that the USDA is on top of the situation.

BTW: IIRC, I thought I read once, back when we got infested, that Ann Arbor or somewhere in Michigan also had an infection before we did. That would have been more than a decade ago. Hopefully these things didn't return.