By DOUG GRAVES

Ohio Correspondent

BATAVIA, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), in collaboration with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Service (APHIS), announced last week that Batavia and Stonelick townships in Clermont County are free from the invasive Asian longhorned beetle (ALB).

“With long days and hundreds of thousands of trees surveyed, this declaration today is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our state, federal and local partners,” said David T. Daniels, director of ODA. “It is this collaboration that will achieve continued success in the fight to rid Ohio of this destructive pest.”

The beetle was first discovered during the summer of 2012 in the southern portion of Stonelick Township, in southwestern Ohio. The infestation was linked to the local movement of infested firewood. To control the pest, APHIS and ODA enacted a five square-mile regulated area within Clermont County.

APHIS and its partners removed three infested trees in this area and conducted more than 255,430 inspection surveys of host trees in both townships.

In May 2015, the eradication program completed its third and final cycle of chemical treatment applications on 8,788 high-risk host trees. The ALB eradication program completed final inspection surveys of host trees in January of this year to confirm the beetle is no longer in the area.

Daniels was joined by APHIS representatives last week and community leaders at an announcement ceremony and tree planting at the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, an area contained within the previous Batavia and Stonelick quarantine area.

ODA and APHIS will move to lift the quarantine of these two townships, reducing the regulated areas of Clermont County from 62 to 57 square miles.

“While we are thrilled with the announcement, we still ask residents to remain vigilant and inspect their trees regularly for signs of the beetle,” said Matt Beal, chief of the ODA division of Plant Health. “This satellite infestation was detected by an alert property owner, and it is this type of awareness that will help us toward our goal of eradication.”

Adult ALS is a large, shiny black insect measuring 1 to 1-1/2 inches long, not including antennae, with random white spots. Its white-banded antennae can be as long as the body itself on females and almost twice the body length on males.

Signs of infestation include perfectly round exit holes (about 3/8- to 1/2-inch in diameter) made by adult beetles when they emerge from trees; pockmarks on trunks and branches where female beetles deposit eggs; frass (wood shavings and sawdust) produced by larvae feeding and tunneling; early-fall coloration of leaves or dead branches; and running sap produced by the tree at the egg-laying sites or in response to larval tunneling.

The beetle will infest various common trees in Ohio, including all species of maple, buckeye, willow and elm. To report signs or symptoms of ALB, call the Ohio ALB Eradication Program Office at 513-381-7180 or report online at www.asianlonghornedbeetle.com