Maple syrup producers asked to check for Asian longhorned beetles

(Jennifer Forman Orth/Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources)

Ready to snack on a tree: a male Asian longhorned beetle.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Around this time of year, maple syrup producers are checking their trees to see how the sweet sap is running. Now, the US Forest Service is asking them to check for something not so sweet: the voracious Asian longhorned beetle.

The Forest Service is concerned that a serious infestation of the destructive insects that was discovered in Worcester last August will spread to New England's hardwood forests. They're enlisting the producers as a kind of early-warning system.

"Left unchecked, this pest has potential to wreak havoc not only on forests themselves, but also on the industries that depend upon healthy forests for their livelihood," Mike Bohne, Forest Service Forest Health Group Leader, said in a statement.

Bohne said maple syrup producers can spot signs of the beetle when they tap the trees. The beetles leave dime-sized egg sites and exit holes on tree trunks and branches.

The bug, a native of China and Korea, is currently found in parts of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The bug chews the outer bark to lay its eggs. The larvae feed inside the trunk and that can affect the flow of nutrients and weaken the tree's structure. More than $24.5 million has been spent, and more than 18,000 trees have been cut down in an attempt to stop the Worcester outbreak, the Forest Service said.

The bug can infest more than a dozen North American trees, including maples, birches, elms, and willows. Maples are considered highly attractive to the bug, the Forest Service said.

Bohne said there was "serious concern" that infested firewood was moved from Worcester into New England forests before the infestation was detected.

Forest Service spokesman Bob Fitzhenry said one way the beetle could spread would be if the people in the infested zone took firewood with them on a camping trip or to a vacation home in the woods.

He said the maple syrup producers could be a valuable aid in identifying an outbreak.

"These guys are out in the woods ... It's in their best interests, as well," he said.

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