Asian longhorned beetle: what the agencies record

This page describes what the named sources say. It is not a diagnosis of any tree and does not say what should be done with one. This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. Each section names its source, all read on October 9, 2026. The agencies call the insect Asian longhorned beetle (APHIS and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, called CFIA) or Asian longhorn beetle (Forest Research); the scientific name in all three is Anoplophora glabripennis. Rules on moving wood are on the Asian longhorned beetle regulated status page, and the beetle has a row in insect pests of trees.

Hosts

CFIA calls it a highly destructive wood-boring pest of maples and other hardwoods including poplar, birch and willow. It sorts trees into groups. Maple is most likely to be affected. Birch, poplar and willow are occasionally affected, and elm rarely. CFIA lists horsechestnut, sycamore or London plane, katsura, mountain ash, silk tree, hackberry and goldenrain tree as having no record of problems with this pest. APHIS names maple and other hardwoods and counts firewood from all hardwood species as a regulated article.

Forest Research, which writes for the United Kingdom, gives a longer list of known hosts. It includes alder, apple, ash, beech, birch, cherry and plum, elm, hazel, hornbeam, horse chestnut, maples and sycamores, pear, plane, poplar, rowan and whitebeam, willow, and both American pin oak and North American red oak. The lists differ on plane and horse chestnut, so each is credited here to its own source.

What the sources list as signs

Forest Research describes the adult as shiny black with variable white markings, 20 to 40 mm long, with antennae up to twice the body length banded black and white or light blue. It names the roughly circular exit hole, about 10 mm wide and usually in the main trunk and above, as the most obvious symptom. Less obvious signs it lists are piles of sawdust-like frass at the base of the tree, scraped bark, sap bleeding where eggs were laid, feeding on the bark of small branches, broken and dead branches, and flattened or oval grub holes in the wood. It says the closely related citrus longhorn beetle is almost identical and that some native beetles can be mistaken for it.

APHIS describes the adult as black with white spots, about the size of an almond, seen in the warmer months. For the tree it lists round exit holes about the size of a dime or smaller, egg-site wounds in the bark sometimes with weeping sap, frass, branches falling from healthy-looking trees, tunnelling, and leaves that yellow early or have chewed veins. It says tree damage can be seen year-round. CFIA's page shows photos of the oviposition pit, frothy white sap, the exit hole, larval frass and galleries under the bark, with new pits reddish brown and old pits darker.

What the larvae do

Forest Research says the larvae feed on the wood of living trees, boring galleries from the cambium layer to the heartwood, and that a severe infestation can kill the tree. It says larvae need living wood tissue but can survive in freshly felled trees, and do not live in dead wood such as the wood in houses. CFIA says the larvae can kill trees directly by damaging them or indirectly by letting other pests and diseases in. APHIS says infested trees cannot be treated or saved.

Where the agencies record it

APHIS says the beetle was first found in Brooklyn, New York, in August 1996. Its page, modified October 5, 2026, lists regulated areas in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and South Carolina, and notes that federal orders have removed some areas and expanded the South Carolina one. The counties are on the regulated status page.

CFIA says it was found in Mississauga and Toronto, Ontario, in August 2013, that surveys and removal of infested trees followed, and that it was considered eradicated once five years of surveys found none. The infested place order was repealed effective June 9, 2020, and CFIA's page, modified September 4, 2025, says the restrictions on moving firewood and host tree material there are lifted.

Forest Research says the beetle is not known to be present in the United Kingdom apart from one breeding population found at Paddock Wood, Kent, in 2012. That outbreak was met with rapid eradication action, and annual surveys since have found no evidence of a continuing presence, though single beetles are occasionally intercepted. Of 2,229 trees felled and investigated in 2012, 66 contained the beetle. Sycamore was the most frequent host: 26 percent of sycamores in the area were attacked, and 70 percent of the larvae and 98 percent of the adults found came from sycamore. Most larvae and pupae were in stems and branches 4 to 10 cm across. It adds that climate analysis suggests most of England and Wales and some warmer coastal areas of Scotland could suit the beetle, with south-east England and the south coast at greatest risk.

Notifiable status and reporting

Forest Research lists the beetle as notifiable in the United Kingdom and says a suspected sighting of the beetle, or of its signs on a listed tree, must be reported immediately. In Great Britain it points to the TreeAlert online tool, and in Northern Ireland to TreeCheck. It says each needs at least one clear, well-lit photo. APHIS gives a telephone hotline, 1-866-702-9938, and an online form for residents of New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and South Carolina, and says residents of other states should contact their state plant health officials. CFIA asks that sightings be reported to it immediately and links a report page. The country pages are report a pest in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Text on the United Kingdom is adapted from Forest Research and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.