Emerald ash borer larva found in Muscatine

Basing his prediction on a pending lab result, State Forester Paul Tauke said last week that another emerald ash borer infestation would likely be announced this week.

On Monday state officials said a larva collected from a residential tree in Muscatine has been positively identified as the emerald ash borer.

That makes Muscatine County the 11th of Iowa's 99 counties in which an infestation by the tree killing insect has been confirmed.

The discovery of the larva was 'our first indication that it is here,” said Richard Klimes, Muscatine's parks and recreation director.

'We've not had a lot of trees showing decline associated with the ash borer,” he said.

The city's policy, he said, is not to remove healthy ash trees in anticipation of their eventual death.

Nor will the city chemically treat ash trees in an attempt to prolong their lives, he said.

A statewide quarantine restricting the movement of hardwood firewood, ash logs, wood chips and ash tree nursery stock out of Iowa into non-quarantined areas of other states was issued on Feb. 4 and remains in place.

Other Iowa counties with infestations are Allamakee, Des Moines, Jefferson, Cedar, Union, Black Hawk, Wapello, Bremer, Jasper and Henry.

Though a single adult beetle was found in Johnson County, it is not yet considered infested because there is no evidence of a reproducing population in the county.