DERBY LINE — The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has confirmed that insects collected from ash trees in Derby Line are emerald ash borers (EAB).
This is the first detection in Orleans County.
Landowners and other residents of Derby and surrounding towns are urged to look for signs and symptoms of the insect and report suspicious findings on vtinvasives.org.
Based on tree symptoms, EAB had already spread to this location before it was first detected in Vermont last year.
Although this is a new location in Vermont, the Coaticook and Memphremagog Regional County Municipalities, due north of Orleans County in Quebec, have been part of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s EAB regulated area since January 2018.
EAB is likely to be present in other locations within ten miles of known infestations.
In addition to Derby, this area includes Newport City and Holland, and parts of Newport Town, Coventry, Charleston, Brownington, Morgan, and Norton.
Moving any infested material, especially ash firewood, logs, and pruning debris, can quickly expand the infestation.
One important recommendation is to obtain firewood locally.
Authorities say if you’re going camping this summer to leave your firewood at home.
It is still illegal to bring untreated firewood from out of state into Vermont.
EAB larvae kill ash trees by tunneling under the bark and feeding on the part of the tree that moves water and sugars up and down the trunk.
It was first discovered in North America in the Detroit area in 2002, and over the past seventeen years, it has decimated ash populations.
EAB is known to occur in 35 states and five Canadian provinces.
