Climbing in search of Asian Longhorn Beetles

I work on the Asian Longhorn Beetle Eradication program and thought I would share a few photos and a some insight to my daily climbing duties. These pictures were taken from an ALB infested red maple. The damage was at about 70ft, too high to be seen by our ground staff. This is why climbers are an essential part of the program. The pictures show multiple egg sites and emergent holes. Some egg sites are older than others. Notice the distinct mandible marks around each egg site. This is typical ALB damage that we inspect for. The last photo was an egg site that I cut out that had a freshly hatched ALB larvae. ALB can infest branch diameters down to about the size of your thumb, so there's a significant amount of crown movement required to be able to thoroughly inspect the entire tree. We are required to climb all host trees. ALB can infest a variety of tree species, however maples are the preferred host. This is a different side to tree climbing, so I hope you find this interesting!

That's interesting but also sad. I now know what you meant in the last post about crown inspections. Ohio has been hit hard over the years with various tree problems (Chestnut, Ash, Elm....). Not the Maples too! Nothing ever seems to affect the invasive Ailanthus Altissima (AKA tree of heaven).

Any advice or warnings about how recreational tree climbers can prevent the spread of ALB?

Keep up the good work. I'm glad to hear Ohio is doing something about it or at the very least monitoring the problem.

- Mike

Thanks for posting the photos, I'd never seen an image of the egg laying site with the chew marks around the edge, very helpful, thx!

In New England the Emerald Ash Borer is the latest tree holocaust waiting to happen, too sad.
-AJ