DATE: September 08, 2008
CONTACT:
Sherry Aultman, 864-646-2128
saltmn@clemson.edu
WRITER:
Peter Kent, 864-656-4355
pkent@clemson.edu
Insect threatens Louisville Slugger ash supply
CLEMSON — The emerald ash borer is the enemy of every boy and girl who ever dreamed of hitting a home run with a Louisville Slugger. The world-famous bats are made from the wood of ash trees and the ash borer is devastating the trees from Canada down as far as Maryland.
The Clemson University department of plant industry is monitoring the state’s woodlands to see if the borer has made its way this far south. Large purple insect traps hanging from trees are baited with scent to lure the emerald ash borer. The program will continue through September.
Emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is a non-native beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002, according to the emerald ash borer Web site www.emeraldashborer.info. Adult borers eat ash leaves but cause little damage. The larvae look like small white grubs about the size of a grain of rice. They feed on the inner bark of ash trees, destroying trees’ ability to distribute water and nutrients.
The larvae are the real problem. Since 2002, they have killed more than 40 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions more killed in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. Losses to forest industries and nurseries run into the millions of dollars. What’s more, the dead trees cost communities and property owners to remove dead trees and attempt to control the spread of the insect.
USDA officials have established quarantines in affected states and enforced fines to prevent potentially infested ash trees, logs or hardwood firewood from moving out of infected areas.
Plant disease investigators speculate that the emerald ash borer hitched a ride to the United States via wood packing material carried in cargo ships or airplanes from Asia, where the ash borer is a native. The insect has spread to Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. It also was found in Ohio in 2003, northern Indiana in 2004, northern Illinois and Maryland in 2006, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia in 2007.
Ash is a commercially valuable wood, used for furniture and flooring. But it is best known for making Louisville Slugger bats for Major League Baseball in the United States. The organization is concerned about the ash borer and posted a page about the insect on its Web site. The potential loss of ash wood does pose a challenge for the bat maker.
“Our company is always looking at other species of wood for potentially making baseball bats," according to the Web site. "This is something we have done for many years and will continue to do so. In addition to ash, we make bats from maple and have also manufactured some in recent years from beech. Hickory and oak were also used 70 to 80 years ago, but were found to not be conducive to making baseball bats. Other species of wood are being studied and tested for possible use in baseball bats.”
For more information about controlling the emerald ash borer in South Carolina, contact Sherry Aultman, South Carolina Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) program coordinator at the plant industry department at Clemson. The CAPS program is a combined effort by federal and state agricultural organizations for surveillance and detection of plant pests to determine first-of-season occurrences, population levels and other pest-related activities.
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