State forestry officials are warning Atoka County residents to monitor local trees after suspicious beetles were recently collected inside the McGee Creek Wildlife Management Area.
In a social media advisory issued last week, Oklahoma Forestry Services reported that a Forest Health Specialist located the metallic green insects inside monitoring traps set up at McGee Creek. While specimens have been sent to an entomology laboratory for official verification, state specialists express high confidence that the beetles are indeed the destructive species.
Originally native to Asia, the emerald ash borer is an invasive wood-boring beetle that attacks all native North American ash tree varieties. The pest has already been confirmed in several surrounding Oklahoma counties, including McCurtain, Choctaw, Pushmataha, Love, Carter, Murray, and Delaware.
