State agriculture officials have increased the quarantine zone for an invasive species in southwest Ohio but say residents in Northeast Ohio shouldn’t worry.
The quarantine area in Clermont County is an effort to stop the spread of the Asian longhorned beetle.
Dan Kenny is the assistant chief of the plant health division at the Ohio Department of Agriculture. He says the expansion is small, at less than a square mile.
“It’s very localized and we have no reason to believe that it is in Northeast Ohio. We have looked and continue to look throughout the state at high-risk sites -- ports and places that receive cargo. ODA (Ohio Department of Agriculture) does it, as well as our federal partners who do inspections at the ports.”
Kenny says the spread of the insect was likely caused by the movement of firewood, lumber and other wood from quarantined areas.
The Asian longhorned beetle is a shiny black insect with white spots and long antennae. They're most commonly identified by the half-inch perfectly round drilling holes they leave in trees.
