Waltham services Pest and Termite Control Since 1893
Can you tell the difference?
June 7, 2009
In August of 2008, a highly destructive, tree destroying insect previously not thought to exist in the northeast was discovered in Worcester, Massachusetts. The only currently accepted method of control is to destroy the infested trees to stop the beetle from spreading. Large areas of Worcester County in Central Massachusetts have been quarantined and thousands of trees have been destroyed on public and private property to try to contain the beetle.
There is another beetle that looks similar to the imported destructive-to-healthy trees species. Over the past few weeks (May & June 2009), people across Massachusetts and the other New England states have reported seeing whitespotted sawyer beetles, the beetle most often confused with Asian longhorned beetle (ALB). The whitespotted sawyer (Monochamus scutellatus), a native beetle that attacks diseased and damaged pine trees, emerges from trees earlier in the season than ALB, which is not expected to be seen in Massachusetts until July.
