Governor Mark Dayton has proclaimed this week — May 20 through 26 — as Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week. The designation is part of a nationwide effort to raise awareness about the destructive nature of emerald ash borer and to share with Minnesotans the three Ps of EAB: prepare, protect, and plant.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture urges residents and cities to prepare for their ash trees to be infested with emerald ash borers. Preparation involves knowing the signs and symptoms, and being ready to act if trees become infested. Management options for an EAB-infested tree include tree removal or treatment.

MDA is also advising residents to protect areas not yet infested with emerald ash borer by not moving firewood and by being aware of the restrictions associated with the EAB quarantines now in place for Hennepin, Ramsey and Winona Counties. Precautionary insecticide treatments are an option to protect at-risk ash trees, but MDA recommends that consumers only treat trees within 15 miles of a known infestation.

Finally, MDA is advising residents to react to EAB and other invasive tree pests by planting a variety of native trees.

EAB is a tree pest not native to the U.S. Since being discovered in Michigan in 2002, it has been found in 15 states, including Minnesota. The insect attacks and kills ash trees when the larvae tunnel under the tree’s bark, cutting off its food supply. EAB has been spread in firewood, nursery stock and possibly other ash materials.

For more details on EAB, click here.