The Asian Longhorned beetle (scientific name: Anoplophora glabripennis) entered the United States in 1996 in New York City in contaminated packaging material from China. It has now spread beyond New York State to New Jersey, Massachusetts and Ohio, often through transportation of infected firewood. It attacks maple trees and other hardwood trees, and is a serious threat to northeastern forest ecosystems, as well as the timber and maple sugar/syrup industry. The vicinity of Worcester, Massachusetts is the hardest hit area in the northeast, with 34,000 trees having to be cut down to combat the beetle.
**For further reading on invasive beetles, please see this article…
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/nyregion/thousands-of-trees-will-fall-in-a-renewed-battle-to-stop-a-beetle.html?_r=0
