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Emerald ash borer reported in Whiteside County

For the second time in less than a week, Emerald Ash Borer has been found in our area.
Emerald Ash Borer photo from forestryimages.org

For the second time in less than a week, Emerald Ash Borer has been found in our area. 

The Illinois Department of Agriculture has confirmed Emerald Ash Borer has been found in Morrison.

The discovery was made when a forestry technician working for the state’s Department of Natural Resources spotted a distressed ash tree on the Whiteside County Fairgrounds.  Department of Agriculture staff then found a dead adult emerald ash borer beetle in the bark of the tree.

A statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the infestation appears, so far, to be localized and no other trees on the fairgrounds had signs of infestation.

Emerald ash borer can be difficult to detect in newly-infested trees, though.  Signs of infestation include thinning and yellowing leaves and D-shaped holes in the bark.   Infested trees eventually die. 

Forty-one Illinois counties were already under quarantine in an effort to stop the spread of emerald ash borer through movement of infested wood or plants.  Whiteside County was, so far, not on the quarantine list.  The Illinois quarantine includes Boone, Bureau, Champaign, Clark, Coles, Cook, Cumberland, DeKalb, DeWitt, Douglas, DuPage, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Grundy, Henry, Iroquois, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall,  Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Macon, Marion, Marshall, McHenry, McLean, Moultrie, Ogle, Piatt, Putnam, Shelby, Stark, Vermillion, Will, Winnebago and Woodford counties. 

In Iowa, Emerald Ash Borer was found most recently in Burlington.  Quarantine was expected to be issued there, to prohibit hardwood firewood, ash logs and wood chips from being moved out of Des Moines County without a permit. 

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