New Jersey Wins Fight Against a Tiny Invader

Written by LISA W. FODERARO
Published: March 22, 2013
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/nyregion/new-jersey-eradicates-asian-long-horned-beetles-after-11-year-fight.html?ref=invasivespecies

Summary:
      New Jersey declares victory in its war against the Asian long-horned beetle, which is an invasive, hardwood-eating, tiny insect that arrived at New York City in 1996. Since then, the beetle has appeared in 5 different states. Asian long-horned beetles lay their eggs inside the bark of the tree. After the eggs hatch, larvae feed on the trunk’s hardwood, which is inside of the tree. According to Rhonda Santos, a spokeswoman for the federal Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. a cross section of a tree infested by Asian long-horned beetle would look like Swiss cheese. Because of the way beetles survive, they endanger some of the most abundant tree species in the U.S such as maples, London planes, birches and poplars.
      In 2002 in New Jersey, the beetle was first detected in Jersey City, in Hudson county. 113 trees were infested with this beetle, but it did not attract the attention of New Jersey. Later on in 2004, a more serious outbreak occurred in Carteret, NJ. The state sent out officials to inspect the trees and recorded over 600 infested trees in Cateret ,Linden, Rahway and Woodbridge.
      New Jersey combated this problem by inspecting 129,686 trees in a 25-square-mile zone. Officials told people to not transport firewood because this is the main reason why beetles spread. The workers not only cut the infested trees, but also cut the trees that were in high risk. For example, in Linden, NJ there were only 11 infested trees, but the workers ended up cutting down 14,894 trees were cut down, which included all sorts of trees from saplings to tall trees. All of those trees were chipped down and were burned. Eventually, the Department of Environmental Protection replanted about one-third of the trees that were removed.
The last beetle inside New Jersey was seen in 2006. However, state and federal agriculture officials wanted to make sure that the beetles would not come back to New Jersey. Thus, they required localities to wait for 3 Asian long-horn beetle life cycles before certainly eliminating the beetles. The Asian long-horned beetle created so much damage that over 20,000 trees were cut down in New Jersey. However, this decision of cutting so much wood caused the beetles to disappear from New Jersey and eliminating the problem of eliminating tree species.
      Even though the beetles are gone from New Jersey, there are still huge Asian long-horn beetle problems in New York State. Also, these beetles are not the only invasive species problem. There is also emerald ash borers that fly fast and attack ash trees. These borers are an even bigger problem as they are in 18 states including New York and Pennsylvania.

Relevance:
This article is relevant to studies in class because this article discusses ecological problems such as invasive species. In Chapter 35, we learned about predation and how it harms environments when foreign species are introduced into communities. When species are introduced, such as the Asian long-horned beetle, they tend to disrupt the community by preying on the native species (such as the maples, London planes, birches and poplars). The invasive species' population is not controlled by the other predators inside the community. Therefore, they tend to populate and completely dominate the environment. As the Asian long-horned beetles continue to eliminate populations of trees, there will be increased competition between the native species and the Asian long-horned beetle. Eventually, the Asian long-horned beetle will eliminate the trees and all of the organisms within the environment will be affected by lack of food or habitat. This will wipe out organisms within the environment and the ecosystem will lose biodiversity as the ecosystem has a less variety of organisms. Overall, Asian long-horned beetles are disruptive species that invade environments and prey on native trees without population control from predators.