3 Small Beetles Trigger a Massive Search

The discovery of three bullet-shaped beetles of a type known for destroying thousands of acres of forests prompted authorities near Sacramento to embark on an unusual search -- tree by tree by tree.

The search was conducted with the help of a specialized team of federal firefighters.

The insects, Asian longhorned beetles, made their way to California last month in wooden crates containing tiles imported from China, authorities said.

One of the beetles was found inside a private warehouse at the site of the former McClellan Air Force Base, 10 miles northeast of Sacramento, but it was the two beetles discovered just outside that worried officials most and sent them running.

“There have been a few cases of Asian longhorned beetles [in California] ... but this is the first time officials spotted beetles outdoors,” said Matt Mathes, a spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service. Usually they are found inside warehouses.

Speckled and with long antennae, Asian longhorned beetles chew their way into hardwood trees to lay their eggs. Their larvae tunnel deep under the bark and feed on living tree tissue, effectively cutting off the tree’s food supply and starving it.

The insects, which can be 1 1/2 inches long, were first seen in the United States in 1995. Since then, they have destroyed thousands of trees in urban centers, including in New York, New Jersey and Illinois, and have cost municipalities millions of dollars in eradication efforts.

Authorities in California, where the beetles are not yet a problem, were not taking any chances.

After hearing of the beetle’s appearance on June 15, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Sacramento County officials dispatched more than 20 surveyors to look for telltale signs of the beetle -- holes on tree bark the size of a pencil’s eraser head -- within a quarter-mile of the warehouse.

Soon after, 190 traps hung from 6-foot metal poles were set up and, just last week, a team of four smokejumpers joined the beetle-fighting effort. Smokejumpers normally parachute into remote areas to fight fires and climb trees to retrieve their firefighting gear, which is dropped from planes separately.

From Monday to Wednesday, they climbed 40-foot trees, inspecting the upper trunks of every hardwood tree in the quarter-mile radius, about 200 in all. Dangling from ropes attached to maples, sycamores and elms, the smokejumpers became a bit of a local attraction.

“People where driving by wondering ‘What in the world?’ ” Mathes said. “But these guys are extremely safe and competent tree climbers. They’re our version of the Navy SEALs.”

No other Asian longhorned beetles were found. Surveyors are expected to return to the area periodically for at least a year to inspect traps and look for traces of the insect, officials said.

California has some experience with beetles. Despite having natural predators, the native bark beetle is responsible for destroying thousands of acres of trees in the state, particularly pines, weakened by drought.

Like the bark beetle, which also burrows under tree bark, the Asian longhorned beetle is hard to eradicate. Attempts to kill the latter by spraying insecticides, a method used to control other pests, have largely failed.

“Because most of the beetle’s life cycle is inside the tree, an external spray is not going to come in contact with burrowing larvae,” said Kevin Hoffman, an entomologist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “The best eradication method is to cut the tree down ... or inject insecticide into the tree to kill the larvae.”

In New York state, more than 7,000 infected trees have been cut down since 1996, when the Asian longhorned beetle first appeared there. And New Jersey just began an effort to cut down 4,000 of its hardwoods, Hoffman said.

Jay Van Rein, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, citing USDA information, said that if the beetle were to become established in the United States, 35% of urban trees would be destroyed, resulting in losses of $41 billion dollars for tree removal and replacement.

And for California, a state whose economy deeply relies in part on agriculture, the consequences would be especially severe. “This [beetle] would devastate California’s agriculture,” Van Rein said. “Think of all the fruit trees we have here. Those are hardwoods.”