USDA to treat trees for invasive beetle

The US Department of Agriculture will treat 3,200 trees in Suffolk County with an insecticide designed to target the invasive Asian longhorn beetle, officials said yesterday. The department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin the program on June 1 in Jamaica Plain, where infected trees were found and removed last summer, the USDA said in a statement. Crews plan to inject trees with the insecticide imidacloprid, which has been used in eradication efforts in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, according to the statement. Two public meetings will be held in order to present the plan to the public, at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Faulkner Hospital Auditorium and at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Franklin Park Clubhouse.