Emerald ash borer
The emerald ash borer is a small, slim beetle that shines bright metallic green, like a jewel. When it opens its wings, its back is bright red underneath. It lives on ash trees, and its babies tunnel under the bark.
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Fun facts
When it leaves the tree, it chews a hole shaped like the letter D through the bark.
Its larvae make long, wiggly tunnels under the bark.
In its home in Asia it does little harm, but in America and Europe it kills lots of ash trees.
It is spreading in Europe by up to 40 kilometres a year.
A mother beetle lays about 40 to 70 eggs in cracks of the bark.
Most asked questions about Emerald ash borer
?Why is the emerald ash borer a problem?
Outside Asia its larvae eat under the bark of ash trees and can kill them.
?How big is an emerald ash borer?
Only about 8.5 millimetres long and very thin.
?Is the emerald ash borer dangerous to people?
No. It is harmless to people. It only harms ash trees.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Agrilus planipennis
- Named by
- Fairmaire, 1888
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Buprestidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Buprestidae
- Lives on
- Asia, North America, Europe
- Also known as
- EAB
Where the facts come from
- Emerald ash borer (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - Forestry Archive. CC BY 3.0 us, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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