Emerald ash borer spreads to new places, new trees

Excerpt

Not only has the emerald ash borer recently been spotted in places it never was before, but according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it has also jumped trees.

The emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that likely got to this country by hitchhiking on wood-packing material that arrived from Asia, has already cost millions of dollars and killed millions of ash trees in two-dozen states. Now it’s been spotted in places in New York state where it never before appeared, and it’s begun to attack the white fringetree, a plant in the same family as the ash.

“It appears that emerald ash borer is eating more than ash trees,” Don Cipollini, a Wright State University researcher, said in a news release. “It may have a wider host range than we ever thought in the first place, or it is adapting to utilize new hosts. This biological invasion is really something to worry about.”

Read the article from Weather.com.