ALDEN, Minn. – The voracious tree-tunneling emerald ash boror has arrived in Alden, midway between Albert Lea and Blue Earth – 130 miles west of its entry into southeast Minnesota 12 years ago. Thus Freeborn County became the 28th infected in Minnesota. Hundreds of millions of trees have been in the path of the Asian insect, which bores into trees, preferably ash, and lays eggs. In Freeborn County the first borer was spotted by forestry worker near Alden. The state Natural Resources Department immediately quarantine the movement of firewood and felled ash trees out of the county in the hope, probably futile, that the b infestation can be corralled.
Expanded quarantine. In red.
Woodpeckers needed. Emerald ash borer larvae kill ash trees by tunneling under the bark and feeding on the part of the tree that moves nutrients up and down the trunk. Woodpeckers like to feed on the larvae.