With the extreme cold of a week ago, some people have asked if it’s been frigid enough to kill all the larvae of the emerald ash borer.
Entomologist Gary Brewer says American populations of that tree-killing insect have been staying steady in places much colder than Iowa.
Brewer says where they first showed up in North America was in colder, harsher climates than we have here, in Ohio and the Great Lakes area and up in Ontario and they’re still doing very fine there.
Their original habitat in Asia is in some very cold areas as well.
The E-A-B was first discovered in Iowa in 2010 on in island in the Mississippi River near the town of New Albin.
Since then, the beetle has moved westward and infestations are found in more than 70 of Iowa’s 99 counties.
Studies find there are some 52-million woodland ash trees and more than three-million community ash trees in Iowa.
