New York’s environmental agency wants to bolster its battle against invasive Asian longhorned beetles by tapping into a widespread network of bug traps: backyard swimming pool filters.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is recruiting pool owners to participate in a survey from July 23rd to August 30 to watch for the beetles before they cause serious damage to forests and street trees.
Asian long-horned beetles have killed hundreds of thousands of trees across the country by boring into the trunks. There has been heavy damage to maples in parts of New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Illinois.