Environmental Issue Paper, Justin Roch, ENG 101 E, 11/15/16
In the past couple of decades, an unprecedented threat to North America’s trees and forests has emerged in the form of two invasive species of beetles, the Asian Longhorned Beetle and the Emerald Ash Borer. Both beetles are major pests of widespread forest and neighborhood trees, and if left unchecked, have the potential to completely change the character of our forests. Although not as widely known as some higher-profile environmental issues, invasive species like the Asian Longhorned Beetle and the Emerald Ash Borer are nevertheless one of the greatest problems facing the environment today, and is a problem that is likely to grow still greater in the future.
The Asian Longhorned Beetle was the first to arrive in North America. Native to eastern Asia, it is an attractive beetle up to one and a half inches long, glossy black with white spots and speckles, and with long antennae banded white and black (Childs et al.). Unusually for a forest pest, it attacks a wide variety of healthy hardwood trees, including …show more content…
The University of Massachusetts Amherst reports that it is a small, elongate beetle only about half an inch long, and a brilliant metallic green in color. Similar to the Asian Longhorned Beetle, female beetles lay their eggs on the bark of host trees, and the larvae that emerge bore under the bark. There they stay for the next year as they carve a twisting S-shaped tunnel through the living cambium layer just beneath the bark, quickly cutting off the tree’s supply of nutrients. In the spring the adult beetles emerges through small, distinctive D-shaped holes in the tree. The Emerald Ash Borer kills trees much more quickly than the Asian Longhorned Beetle does, with affected trees dying only 1-4 years from the initial infestation (Simisky, Gooch, and
In the past couple of decades, an unprecedented threat to North America’s trees and forests has emerged in the form of two invasive species of beetles, the Asian Longhorned Beetle and the Emerald Ash Borer. Both beetles are major pests of widespread forest and neighborhood trees, and if left unchecked, have the potential to completely change the character of our forests. Although not as widely known as some higher-profile environmental issues, invasive species like the Asian Longhorned Beetle and the Emerald Ash Borer are nevertheless one of the greatest problems facing the environment today, and is a problem that is likely to grow still greater in the future.
The Asian Longhorned Beetle was the first to arrive in North America. Native to eastern Asia, it is an attractive beetle up to one and a half inches long, glossy black with white spots and speckles, and with long antennae banded white and black (Childs et al.). Unusually for a forest pest, it attacks a wide variety of healthy hardwood trees, including …show more content…
The University of Massachusetts Amherst reports that it is a small, elongate beetle only about half an inch long, and a brilliant metallic green in color. Similar to the Asian Longhorned Beetle, female beetles lay their eggs on the bark of host trees, and the larvae that emerge bore under the bark. There they stay for the next year as they carve a twisting S-shaped tunnel through the living cambium layer just beneath the bark, quickly cutting off the tree’s supply of nutrients. In the spring the adult beetles emerges through small, distinctive D-shaped holes in the tree. The Emerald Ash Borer kills trees much more quickly than the Asian Longhorned Beetle does, with affected trees dying only 1-4 years from the initial infestation (Simisky, Gooch, and