ity and federal officials confirmed yesterday
the discovery of Asian long-horned beetle larvae in an American elm
tree in Central Park, the first time in three years that an
infestation of the tree-eating bug has been found in the park.
Adrian Benepe, the city's parks commissioner, said the voracious
beetle could be a devastating menace to many of the park's species
of trees. "The bad news is that we have found a new infestation in
Central Park," Mr. Benepe said. "The good news is that it has been
found in an early stage, so the tree will be chopped down, chopped
up, chipped up, then incinerated."
Mr. Benepe said it was fairly likely that other beetle-infested
trees would be found close to the elm, which is between 70th and
71st Streets near Fifth Avenue. "That's between bad and good," he
said.
Mr. Benepe said half the trees in the city are the kind the
long-horned beetle likes to devour. "The implications are
frightening for Central Park and New York City," he said. "If there
were an uncontrollable epidemic, we could lose all these trees."
The discovery in the elm of more than 30 beetle larvae was the
first confirmed Asian long-horned beetle infestation in the park
since Feb. 5, 2002, when a Norway maple and a sugar maple were found
infested with the insect in the Hallet Nature Sanctuary in the
southeastern end of the park. Those trees were cut down and
destroyed as prescribed, apparently halting the infestation.
The beetle larvae were spotted by Don Graham, who works for the
Forest Service, an agency of the United States Department of
Agriculture. Based in Redding, Calif., Mr. Graham, 27, is a member
of a team of five smoke jumpers that is surveying the park as part
of the federal government's Asian long-horned beetle eradication
program. The team's more common job is to parachute into burning
forests in the West.
"We climb so many trees, and to actually find an infested tree
was a big deal," Mr. Graham said.
He said unusual markings on the tree caught his attention this
week.
"It's quite a shock," he said of the news that the larvae had
been positively identified as belonging to the beetle. He had cut
out the infestation with his pocket knife and tossed it down to a
smoke jumper on the ground. The specimen was sent to a laboratory
for testing.
Mr. Benepe said New Yorkers could help in the battle against the
beetle by looking for evidence of its presence and calling 311. The
beetle is about one to one and a half inches long, with a shiny
black body, distinctive white spots and long antennae. Signs to look
for on trees are nearly perfect round exit holes about the size of a
dime and coarse sawdust left behind by beetle larvae as they bore
into the tree stem and branches.
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