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The Asian Longhorn Beetle
© Kenneth Law |
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If you spot a glossy black beetle with long black-and-white antennae on a favorite tree—catch it! It just might be an Asian longhorn beetle. A major hardwood pest, this beetle was first discovered in the United States in 1996, in Brooklyn, New York. Chicago suffered a serious infestation in summer, 1998, and scientists are worried that we may be on the brink of a potential ecological disaster. Asian Longhorn beetles spend the majority of their life as inch-long larvae, which eat the insides of a living tree until it weakens and dies. Unfortunately, the only method of dislodging the beetles and preventing further spread is to remove the tree and destroy it completely. The beetles probably arrived in larval form inside wooden packing crates from China. Scientists estimate that inspectors catch only between two and twenty percent of what comes in. They are hard at work on identification, control and eradication programs. The Asian longhorn beetle is only one of the thousands of alien species which have been introduced to North America, sometimes with devastating consequences.
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