A destructive beetle native to Asia that has ravaged ash forests across North America has now been discovered in the European Union for the first time, with authorities confirming detections in Hungary and Slovakia.
Slovakia’s Agricultural Central Control and Testing Institute (UKSUP), based in Bratislava, said 18 of the feared Emerald Ash Borers were found this month in the country’s eastern Streda nad Bodrogom district.
In Hungary, two adult Emerald Ash Borers were recovered in June from a trap in the Beregsurany forest, close to the Ukrainian border, the country’s NEBIH food safety office said in a statement.
The agency described the Emerald Ash Borer as “one of the most serious pests affecting ash trees”, warning that it “has already caused significant ash tree mortality in North America and Eastern Europe”.
Emerald ash borer specimens seen in a lab in Maine, USA
NEBIH has urged members of the public to alert authorities if they notice trees displaying suspicious symptoms.
The beetle has already killed tens of thousands of ash trees in the United States and Canada. Many European countries have prepared emergency response plans in anticipation of the pest being detected on the continent.
Hungary has requested that the beetle’s presence be placed on the agenda for the next meeting of EU agriculture ministers.
“We are aware of the gravity of the situation and are doing everything possible to prevent this pest from becoming permanently established in Hungary or turning into a plant health issue for the whole European Union,” Hungary’s Agriculture Minister Szabolcs Bona told the Agroinform.hu farm news website.
