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WOODBRIDGE FINALLY FREE OF DESTRUCTIVE INSECT
Woodbridge, NJ
March 14, 2013
Effective immediately, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has declared that the Asian Longhorned Beetle has been eradicated from Middlesex County and Union County, New Jersey.
Woodbridge, along with the rest of Middlesex County and Union County, have been under a quarantine since the discovery of Asian Longhorned Beetle in 2004. The invasive beetle is highly damaging to Maple trees and several other hardwood tree species. The declaration of complete eradication was been made because ongoing tree surveys of host trees for the past three years has resulted in none of the beetles being found in either county. The previously quarantined communities included Carteret and Woodbridge in Middlesex County and Clark, Elizabeth City, Linden, Rahway, and Roselle in Union County.
The first discovery of Asian Longhorned Beetle in the United States was made in 1996 in Brooklyn, New York. The borer-type beetle was subsequently discovered in Chicago, Illinois; Hudson, Middlesex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; Suffolk and Worcester Counties in Massachusetts; and in Clermont County, Ohio. With the apparent conclusion of eradication efforts in Middlesex and Union Counties there are no other Asian Longhorned Beetle quarantine areas remaining in New Jersey.
Efforts are still underway, and quarantines are still in place, to eradicate Asian Longhorned Beetle infestations in Worcester County, Massachusetts and Clermont County, Ohio.
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