Who's Been Drilling These Holes in My Tree?
It was the landlord of a building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who first spotted the Asian longhorn beetle on maple trees in front of his home. Noticing perfectly rounded holes about 9 1/2 millimeters (3/8 inch) in diameter and a great deal of sawdust at the base of the trees and on the sidewalk, at first he thought local kids were drilling into the trees as a prank. On August 19, 1996, he notified the local parks and recreation department, and an inspector identified the culprit as a big, unfamiliar, coal black beetle with white spots on its wing covers and long black-and-white antennae.
Identified By a "Bug Detective"
Shocked by the damage, the inspector sent one of the beetles to scientist E. Richard Hoebeke of Cornell University's renowned department of entomology, who calls himself a "bug detective.” "I remember very vividly the first time I saw it," recalls Hoebeke. "I said, 'Geez, where did this come from?' Because this is an unusual beetle, it's not native to North America." Within a few hours he was able to identify it as Anoplophora glabripenis, but the full impact of the ID didn't hit him until he arrived at ground zero in Brooklyn two days later. "I was shocked. I mean, I sat there, looking at these trees, with my mouth open. These trees were sickly. They had these big exit holes, piles of sawdust at the base of the tree, on the sidewalk, sap flowing, you name it. I knew that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had to be notified." Hoebeke recognized the makings of a potential ecological disaster.
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