It was bad enough when the emerald ash borer arrived in America in 2002 and started on a journey that’s killed some 40 million ash trees in 25 U.S. states, including Pennsylvania.
Now the elongated, shiny, metallic-green, wood-boring beetle has been found to like our native fringe tree as well, reports George Weigel on the PennLive gardening blog. Weigel, a Pennsylvania certified horticulturist, is the garden writer for the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed an infestation of emerald ash borers in American fringe trees in Ohio and parts of Illinois, ending the belief that this bug attacked only ash species.
The connection is that both ash and fringe trees are members of the olive family. That raises the specter now of what other olive-family members this borer might like.
Lilac, forsythia and privet are three other common woody landscape plants in that family.
For more on emerald ash borers, check out the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources website. And for what to do if you think your trees are infested, download the state Agriculture Department’s Homeowners Guide to Emerald Ash Borer Treatments.