Emerald Ash Borer – Woodpecker Allies

Emerald Ash Borer Woodpecker Allies

Ambience: Woodpeckers
Ash trees are on the verge of extinction in the United States, thanks to an invasive species of beetle known as the Emerald Ash Borer or EAB. In the battle to save ash trees, scientists see woodpeckers as an ally. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Biologist Jonathan Rosenthal is with the Ecological Research Institute in Kingston, NY.

Rosenthal: Woodpeckers are helping us in our fight against EAB – emerald ash borer, in two ways: first, is they’re helping to reveal where emerald ash borers are infesting ash trees. And that’s because it’s very hard on our own to find the adult EAB, because they’re so small and the larvae are hidden under the bark of the tree. However the woodpeckers will go to a tree, flake off the bark, make it readily apparent, where you can even drive past and see which trees are infested.
The second way that they help is they are eating a lot of EAB larvae, by extracting them from beneath the bark of the trees. However, the fact of the matter is, despite a lot of far foraging by woodpeckers happening on a lot of EAB larvae, EAB is still spreading rapidly.
As soon as you have enough EAB larvae in the tree to destroy this part of the circulatory system all the way around the tree, it prevents needed materials from circulating to the whole tree, which is required for survival.

Woodpeckers alone aren’t enough to control the spread of EAB which has already destroyed millions of trees throughout the United States. We’ll hear about some possible long term solutions in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by Virginia Tech, inventing the future through a hands-on approach to education and research.

Emerald Ash Borer - Woodpecker Allies

Thanks to woodpeckers, there's an easy way to see if a tree is infected by beetles.
Air Date:01/13/2017
Scientist:
Transcript:

Emerald Ash Borer Woodpecker Allies

Ambience: Woodpeckers
Ash trees are on the verge of extinction in the United States, thanks to an invasive species of beetle known as the Emerald Ash Borer or EAB. In the battle to save ash trees, scientists see woodpeckers as an ally. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Biologist Jonathan Rosenthal is with the Ecological Research Institute in Kingston, NY.

Rosenthal: Woodpeckers are helping us in our fight against EAB - emerald ash borer, in two ways: first, is they're helping to reveal where emerald ash borers are infesting ash trees. And that's because it's very hard on our own to find the adult EAB, because they're so small and the larvae are hidden under the bark of the tree. However the woodpeckers will go to a tree, flake off the bark, make it readily apparent, where you can even drive past and see which trees are infested.
The second way that they help is they are eating a lot of EAB larvae, by extracting them from beneath the bark of the trees. However, the fact of the matter is, despite a lot of far foraging by woodpeckers happening on a lot of EAB larvae, EAB is still spreading rapidly.
As soon as you have enough EAB larvae in the tree to destroy this part of the circulatory system all the way around the tree, it prevents needed materials from circulating to the whole tree, which is required for survival.

Woodpeckers alone aren't enough to control the spread of EAB which has already destroyed millions of trees throughout the United States. We'll hear about some possible long term solutions in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by Virginia Tech, inventing the future through a hands-on approach to education and research.