EMERALD ASH BORER - First Tree-Destroying Bug Found in Chicago!
AFFECTED TREE IDENTIFIED, REMOVED AT 29TH AND STATE STREETS, ON SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO!
City of Chicago Bureau of Forestry officials felled the first tree they believe to be infected by the invasive Emerald Ash Borer Thursday morning. The tree was in a forty-year-old grove on the Near South Side. Earlier this month, Bureau officials found four of the suspected Borers in a nearby tree, and sent them to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to confirm their identity.
According to Chicago Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Michael Piccardi, "Our immediate priority is to control the spread of this infestation and to try to save as many trees as possible. We want to contain it, to make sure that it doesn't spread."
Picardi is making every effort to spare trees from being cut down to kill the 1/2-inch, emerald green bugs, whose larvae kill ash trees by chewing through their inner bark. Illinois' Emerald Ash Borer Outreach Coordinator, Juli Heminghous, said earlier this month that about 25 million ash trees have been lost to the insect across the U.S., including about 5,000 trees here in Illinois. The City of Chicago estimates about 20% of its 500,000 parkway trees are ash, and susceptible to the insect.
Emerald Ash Borers have been spotted throughout Cook County, in which the City of Chicago is located, as well as in neighboring Kane, DuPage, and LaSalle Counties. They are thought to have spread through infested firewood or nursery stock, and Illinois ash trees have been quarantined by the Federal Government because of the Ash Borer threat. Only Ash trees are affected by this pest.
For more information on this invasive insect, as well as a photo of the Emerald Ash Borer, read the full story by reporters Robert Mitchum and Melissa Patterson in today's Chicago Tribune. If you suspect an ash tree in your Chicago Neighborhood may be affected, contact the Chicago Bureau of Forestry, at 312-742-3385.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
