The emerald ash borer has been confirmed in a fourth location in the state after a resident of Mechanicsville in Cedar County called to report a tree that didn’t look right.
Department of Agriculture state entomologist, Robin Pruisner, says it’s evident the emerald ash borer population has now grown enough that it has become easier to find.
The bug kills all species of ash trees was first found in May of 2010 in Allamakee County in northeast Iowa. Confirmed cases where then found in 2012 in Des Moines County in July and Jefferson County in August. Pruisner says the Cedar County infestation has them rethinking the plan to try and control the bug…
“We had a quarantine area that was under consideration that was going to quarantine some far southeastern Iowa counties where the Des Moines and Jefferson County infestations had been found,” Pruisner says. “This Cedar County infestation now is a wild card. It’s a lot farther north — yet it’s not all the way up to Allamakee.”
She says they will now have to consider a quarantine that is much larger than that had been looking at one week ago.
