Tree quarantine takes toll as officials search for beetles

John Ducat says the Asian longhorned beetle hasn't hit his Boylston wood yard. (Aram Boghosian/Globe Correspondent)

In Boylston and Shrewsbury, the tree guys are scared.

Consider the plight of John Ducat, owner of a wood yard on Route 140 in Boylston, near the border of the two towns. His business is just inside the quarantine zone separating trees that might be infested with Asian longhorned beetles from those considered healthy.

An invasive species native to China that recently appeared in Worcester, the beetles have the potential to cause more damage to local hardwood trees than gypsy moth caterpillars, Dutch elm disease, and chestnut blight combined, experts say. They have infested only a handful of other US communities, including Chicago and towns in New York and New Jersey.

Ducat hasn't seen any beetles yet, and officials have yet to search his property. But the bugs have already stymied his plans to log 110 acres of forest around Wachusett Reservoir. Rules to stop the spread of the bugs prohibit anyone from taking wood out of the quarantine zone.

"It's mostly white pine, but also hardwood, oak, maple," he said of the state-owned land where he holds logging rights. "It can be harvested, but the value in the wood is when it is cut down and shipped to mills. I'm dead in the water there."

Logging is half of Ducat's business. If the beetles infest his piles of logs, firewood, and mulch, he would probably lose the other half, he said. "The bugs could land on me, and I need to stockpile wood for the following year," said Ducat. "From the wood yard's standpoint, it could have catastrophic effects. It could put me out of business."

Currently, Worcester is the focus of the US Department of Agriculture's inspections for Asian longhorned beetles, which were declared present in the city on Aug. 8. But because trees in Boylston and Shrewsbury are within a mile and a half of infested trees in Worcester, on Aug. 19 portions of the two towns were added to the inspection and quarantine area.

Boylston and Shrewsbury officials cautioned that no one has found the beetles in either town. Right now, they are working to educate residents about the insects, they said. They acknowledged, however, that under a worst-case-scenario strategy for curbing the pest, an infestation could require officials to cut down thousands of trees.

The surest way to eradicate the bug, said experts, is to cut down the infested trees, plus all other susceptible trees within a quarter-mile radius, and grind all that timber into little pieces. The bugs favor maple trees, but also attack elm, birch, and other common local species, but leave alone oaks and evergreens.

"We're dealing with a very serious threat," said Shrewsbury Town Manager Dan Morgado. "We all have these wonderful tree stands and large green areas. It's a threat we're taking very seriously."

The beetles are black with white dots and have bodies around an inch long, with antennae stretching up to 4 inches, experts said. They first came to the United States via infested wooden pallets and shipping crates. Adult females will bore holes to lay eggs in certain tree species, and when the larvae hatch, they feed on the host tree until they grow into mature beetles and repeat the process, eventually killing the tree. They have few natural predators in the United States, and there are no known chemical or biological defenses against the beetle, authorities say.

USDA inspectors expect to survey trees in Worcester for the next few weeks, said spokeswoman Suzanne Bond, and then they will work with state and local officials to decide on the next course of action. Cutting around infested trees would not necessarily be the best option, said Bond. Officials could cut down infested trees and apply insecticide to others nearby, she said.

Boylston's interim town administrator, Joseph Connelly, said he wants residents to know about the Asian beetles, but he was waiting for more information before he and other officials determine how to react. "Until the USDA survey team is in our area, everything is on hold," he said.

Nancy Allen, director of Shrewsbury's Board of Health, which is helping coordinate the town's preparations, said she would hate to lose the maples along Maple Street, a major road leading through the town's center. Shrewsbury is especially vulnerable because they have many of the Norway maples that the critters especially love, she said.

One measure Boylston and Shrewsbury officials have taken has not yielded much response.

The Clark Street yard-waste drop-off center in Worcester has been accepting timber and branches from Boylston and Shrewsbury residents from the quarantine zone who can't dispose of their wood elsewhere. There has been only a slight increase in demand at the center, said Matthew Labovites, assistant commissioner in the city's Department of Public Works and Parks.

"We've seen a handful of residents," he said. "It's been an uptick, yes, but very, very negligible."

Walter Magnusson, owner of Shrewsbury-based WM Tree and Stump Co., said the bugs are already slowing his business. Few homeowners living in the quarantine zone want their trees cut down if he can't move them off their property, he said. Other landowners don't want him to cut down trees because the state might do so for free if beetles are found close by. "There is a drop-off of calls in the quarantine area," said Magnusson.

Of course, if the state decides to fell trees on a mass scale, Magnusson said, he could profit from the contracts that officials might offer. But he would derive little pleasure from that job, he said.

"Even without this infestation, there would be plenty of work for the next generation of tree cutters," he said. "I would just hate to see a whole area devastated and clear cut. Most tree guys, we love trees. We really do."