Date of Award

6-2012

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Jeffrey Corbin

Language

English

Keywords

invasive species, infestation, Ash Borer, trees, insect

Abstract

The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis fairmaire) is a major threat to the American Ash Tree (Fraxinus sp.). It is a native beetle of China and was first discovered in North America in 2002. It originally infested Canada and quickly spread to the Unites States (Kovacs at al, 2010). Though it cannot be confirmed, it is suspected that the insect arrived in Canada in wood packing materials commonly used to stabilize cargo ships or ship consumer products (www.nyis.info). Since its discovery ten years ago near Detroit, Michigan, infestations have been confirmed in 14 different states across the U.S.A (www.dec.ny.gov). The EAB is a phloem-feeding bug, which has the potential to eradicate ash trees across North America. Though it is only possible to detect an infestation once the EAB reaches the adult stage, it is the larvae that live inside the bark of the tree and feed on the phloem, slowly starving and killing the host tree over a two to three year time period. Because of this time delay in detection, once an EAB is found in a region, it is very likely that the beetle has already done significant amount damage (MacFarlene and Meyer, 2003). Already, the EAB is responsible for the death of over 53 million ash trees across the United States alone. Because of the low genetic diversity across species of ash trees, this non-native specie has the potential to spread and kill all ash trees (BenDor et al 2006).

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