Geoff-consulting forester in the US said:
Pat Kiewicz said:

I have to admit, Pat it was tough even seeing your post in this giant
pile of insults, but I found it and I'll answer your questions about EAB.
See my comments below (some snipped):

Thanks! It has gotten a bit thick around here (I post from rec.gardens).
I hate to keep the cross-post going, but I will leave it in for this post
only.

"J teh K" used to be somewhat of a joke here in rec.gardens years ago
whenhe first showed up, but the mix has changed and he's got admirers
under his current moniker. (His typos were legendary in the old days.)

I have some limitations to my newsreader (it's old but I like it) and I
don't follow the alt.forestry group. If you wish to reply to me, I'm willing
to take it privately in e-mail at comcast.net (not at someplace.net.net
which does not exist).


If you knew what was lurking in Asia (and to Europe to some extent)
ready to come over on the boat to set up a "lunch plan" over here in
America, you would be amazed - most people would want significant trade
barriers up - but would they stop shopping at wal-mart? I think not...

Never shop at Wal-Mart voluntarily (pretty much have no choice when
I visit my mother, sad to say).

We live in an accelerated world. The hits just keep coming, faster than
ever. Humans managed to make a few dramatically nasty introductions
in old days (walnut blight and gypsy moths, anyone?) but now we have
giant containerized ships, flush-through bilges, and jet planes. Massive
opportunities for opportunistic organisms!

Our latest problem is the Sirex wood wasp (also in NY, PA, and Ontario),
which is a pest to "hard pines" like Austrian, Jack, Red and Scotch
pines. The Red and Jack pines are obvious "problem" targets, as those
are the only indigenous species of hard pines here, and they are worth
collectively MANY times what the other two species are worth (from both
a timber and ecologically important roles - A small example: Kirtland
Warbler, a transmigratory bird depends on scrubby Jack pine fields for
it's nesting habitat in the Grayling area).

We seriously hope it won't be as much of a problem as EAB is!

Yes, I've read about that one. I hope it's appetite for the native pines
is limited. So far what I've read said that other areas where Sirex has
been introduced has it mainly targets non-native pines. (This threat
makes the confirmed breeding of Kirtland's warblers in Wisconsin even
more important to the species, I suppose. Eggs not all in one basket,
as it were.)

....

I actually had one (the first live beetle I'd seen) tucked under the
the windshield wiper on my car. I sure hope they don't normally
ride around that way.

That is exactly how they get vectored. Windshield wipers, under the
body, frame, wheels, etc. Firewood is a larger problem yet, since there
can be larva underneath the bark and they can emerge in different
locations.

Erg, that's not good, if they can be vectored other than by wood
movement -- though I suppose that unlike gypsy moth caterpillars
looking for a place to pupate, the EAB has no particular inclination to
climb into car bodies or camper-trailers.

(It was definitely an EAB, and did not live to make a trip anywhere.)

....

And in areas the EAB has run rampant over, can they survive
at a low level on the basal shoots that ash trees put out?

I don't know, but I suspect the answer is no - unless the bugs waited
around until those shoots got large enough to produce bark thick enough
to make a habitat for them again (10-15 years or so) - but they would
have to do that by feeding on current ash trees within a 2 mile radius
(max) or so.

Given enough territory and enough not-quite-dead ash trees it might
be just barely possible (if extremely unlikely). I was rather haunted
by descriptions of chestnut trees still throwing up shoots, only to have
the blight take the new shoots, too.


It's a whole lot better if we can educate people to understand how to
eliminate this critter - but it takes everyone's involvement.

This beetle is no respector of healthy trees. It mowed down everything
around here. Proper pruning, watering, mulching, and fertilizing is
not going to help that much when the bark of your neighbors' ash trees
is riddled with 'D' shaped exit holes.


Not every green bug is an EAB, but if you're absolutely sure the one you
see is, please squash him a.s.a.p.

I'd hope if you were in an area where the EAB is not known to be already
established, you might also consider telling someone about it.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)