A fuzzy brown bark beetle smaller than an ant is making Western Pennsylvania its second home at an alarming rate -- and that concerns scientists all too familiar with the devastating impact of invasive insects.
The Asian ambrosia beetle -- or xyleborus maiche -- is native to eastern Russia but turned up near Pittsburgh International Airport two years ago. It recently made another appearance in an insect trap set in a remote part of Indiana County, state officials said Tuesday.
"When we pick something like this up in the middle of nowhere, a few counties over from where it was first found, that's disturbing," said Sven-Erik Spichiger, entomology program manager for the state Department of Agriculture. "It could become a potentially serious pest."
In addition to Allegheny and Indiana counties, the beetle has been found in Beaver, Butler and Washington counties. It has not turned up anywhere else in the United States.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History entomologists first identified the beetle in 2006, after picking it up in some traps they were testing in Moon. After making calls around the world and following leads on similar beetles in Mexico and New Guinea, they determined it was a seemingly innocuous bug from Russia.
Outside of its homeland, the beetle could prove far from harmless.
"There's always the worry that it could be displacing something that's supposed to be here," Spichiger said, adding that it carries a fungus that could prove detrimental to hardwood trees. After the devastation caused by Dutch Elm disease -- another fungus spread by beetles -- agricultural scientists are wary.
So far the beetle doesn't seem to be causing problems, though it could take several years for damage to become obvious.
"The problem is that it's outside of its normal environment; it's in an alien environment and it seems to be persisting," said Robert Androw, the natural history museum entomologist who identified the beetle.
"Things like this have to be monitored and watched," he said. "Now that we know it's here, we have to pay attention to what it may do next."
Larger text
Smaller text
Print this article
E-mail this article
