LIBERTY, ME - MAY 31: Colleen Teerling, Entomologist, Maine Forest Service Insect and Disease Lab, shows evil emerald ash borer specimens. She is researching if they have reached Maine yet. (Photo by Carl D. Walsh/Portland Portland Press Herald via G … ((Photo by Carl D. Walsh/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
BELLE PLAINE, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Agriculture announced an emergency quarantine limiting the movement of firewood in Carver and Sibley counties after officials confirmed the presence of emerald ash borers.
Emerald ash borers are an invasive insect species that kill ash trees by tunneling under the bark and eating away at the system that carries the nutrients through the trunk.
A professional tree care worker recently noticed several impacted trees north of Belle Plaine near the Carver-Sibley county border. MDA staff confirmed larvae were living in trees on both sides of the border.
MDA officials enacted the quarantine of firewood and ash materials to help reduce the possible spread of the emerald ash borer.
There are now 25 Minnesota counties with confirmed cases of emerald ash borers. The invasive insects were first found in the state in 2009. Minnesota has about one billion ash trees, the most of any state in the country.
MDA officials will announce an open house for residents and tree care workers in Carver and Sibley counties.