Almost a week after a tree-killing beetle made its first public appearance in Ravenswood, reported sightings of the Asian longhorn beetle are turning up from Calumet City to Deerfield as nervous residents give bugs a second and even third look.
Calls about the immigrant beetle, which apparently sneaked into this country, are pouring into a state hot line. One report was from Buffalo Grove, where a suspicious-looking insect was found on a gasoline pump and promptly found itself in police custody.
By Wednesday, the hot line had received more than 500 calls from people reporting strange-looking bugs crawling on trees or scuttling across kitchen floors. Most probably will turn out to be ordinary insects–or, perhaps, look-alike native beetles.
Nevertheless, they reflect the beetle-induced anxiety gripping Chicago.
A homeless person who stepped on an exceptionally creepy bug on North Michigan Avenue reported in, state officials said. One woman in Ravenswood put a pair of questionable bugs into a Ziploc bag on the porch, then called authorities and asked that they please pick it up.
Other possible sightings came from as far away as DeKalb and Crystal Lake, officials said.
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“There is a sense of urgency among people because they want to know if they have the beetle or not and whether their trees are safe or not,” said Pat Hogan, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
In Buffalo Grove, miles from the worrisome center of the infestation that has Chicago buzzing, a motorist said he found a suspicious-looking beetle crawling on a gasoline pump Monday night, put it in a pill bottle and turned it over to police in nearby Wheeling. Officers inspected it–they even photographed it–and then called state officials.
Agriculture authorities picked up the beetle Wednesday, but the verdict on whether it is in fact the loathsome culprit from China or merely a more benign North American cousin was not expected until sometime Thursday. If confirmed, it would be the first sighting of the bug well outside the 12-block area in Ravenswood and a discouraging indication that this dangerous problem might already have spread.
Officials say it will take them days to check out all of the alleged sightings.
There are only four state inspectors and another eight federal inspectors available, and their first priority is searching Ravenswood for infested trees in order to pinpoint the damage there.
When that is finished, they will start checking out some of the phone reports of beetles seen in more distant areas. Possible sightings in far-flung places generally are given a lower priority because they seem less likely to be true.
“We will get to all of them, but we have to deal with those closest to the site of the infestation first,” Hogan said. “And it will take a lot of time before we can define where the beetle is or it is not.”
Those who answer the phones carefully quiz callers in an effort to screen the obviously bogus sightings.
Even experts sometimes can have trouble distinguishing the Asian longhorn from some relatively harmless Midwestern cousins such as the North American white spotted sawyer, scientists say. The two beetles are thought to have evolved from the same ancestor millions of years ago, before Asia and North America separated into separate continents.
“It developed one way in China and another way here,” said Ken Kruse, a representative for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Chicago.
“People look at (the local variety) and think, `That’s it,’ ” he said. “There was one at the airport this week. Customs picked it off a crate and called.”
It was a false alarm. The bug was not an Asian longhorn.
The Asian longhorn is coal-black with white polka dots and striped antennas and legs. It’s an inch to inch and half long but seems bigger because of the long antennas.
Unlike its more lethal cousin, the white spotted sawyer is more dark brown or even bronze than it is black. And though it may look similar with its long antennas, only the female has spots.
Scientists are so cautious about making a proper identification that several of them may look at a bug before declaring what it is. The first Asian longhorn found in Chicago, for example, was sent to Washington, where a host of scientists took a gander before confirming its identity.
If the beetles spread, they can destroy city trees, a valuable source of greenery and shade in an urban environment.
The Asian longhorn beetle carves niches in trees, in which it lays its eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae that tunnel into the tree, leaving dime-sized holes and destroying the internal system that carries water and nutrients. Eradication is impossible with conventional pesticides because the chemicals do not reach the larvae inside the tree.
Although other kinds of beetles do eat trees, the natives have natural predators in this country. Scientists fear the Asian longhorn, on the other hand, could get out of control.
Investigators have discovered three beetles outside the original area where they were first found, but only by about a block.
Trees infested with the Asian variety must be cut down, with the wood chipped into sawdust. That’s what was done in New York two years ago, when a similar infestation of the Asian longhorn beetle was dubbed “The Return of the Amityville Horror.”
The Chicago infestation is considered so serious that the city’s Bureau of Forestry has banned tree-trimming or tree-cutting in Ravenswood, with the exception of storm-damaged limbs. City forestry workers are grinding downed branches into sawdust on the spot. It is feared that trimming could disrupt the beetle and further its spread.
The beetle is thought to have arrived here about three years ago as a stowaway in a crate of tools imported from China, where it is known as the Starry Sky Beetle.
As for the six-legged suspect picked up from Wheeling police, it’s not going to live long no matter what it turns out to be.
“It was a big beetle, very ugly looking. It was probably two inches long,” said Wheeling Deputy Chief Michael Hermes.
“As of today it was still alive, but the Department of Agriculture said it won’t be moving long. He’s going into the freezer, so I guess that’s the end of its stint.”
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