Emerald Ash Borer, Tree Killer, Found in Cranbury

Cranbury Township, NJ - Attention, homeowners: The Emerald Ash Borer has been found as close by as Cranbury.

What is the Emerald Ash Borer? It's an invasive species of beetle that is responsible for wiping out entire groves of trees, specifically ash trees, where it breeds. As Patch has reported, many towns in New Jersey this summer have been warned by the State Department of Agriculture to keep an eye out for the bug.

The beetle was found in Cranbury Township, according to TAP Into, and Cranbury immediately began work on an Emerald Ash Borer management plan, including an ash tree inventory.

The Emerald Ash Borer was most recently reported in Moorestown, New Jersey. In March of this year, officials there released a dire prediction: In the next 5-8 years, all ash trees in Moorestown may be dead because of the beetle. The borer has also been spotted in Bridgewater and Hillsdale in 2014 and 2015.

The beetle usually lays its eggs in ash trees in the summer, and the bug is so destructive because its larvae eat ash tree wood from the inside out as they grow. Telltale signs of an infestation are signature S-like squiggles found on the bark of ash trees. It takes two to four years for a tree to die.

“In four years’ time, we will be completely infested in New Jersey,” Wayne Dubin, vice president of the New Jersey Shade Tree Federation told NorthJersey.com. “They will be everywhere.”