Report a tree pest or disease in the United States: who the agencies name

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It sets out how the federal plant health agency and one state agency describe reporting a suspected tree pest or disease, with the date each page shows. For the wider country-by-country picture see tree pests and diseases.

Who takes the report

The federal agency is the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, called APHIS. Its pest pages ask anyone who sees a pest or signs of its damage to report it immediately. Where a pest is already established in a state, the pages send the reporter to a state contact. For states with no established population, the pages send the reporter to the State plant regulatory official or the State plant health director, and link to both. The National Plant Board, which represents the state plant regulatory agencies, has a members page with one link per state.

What each APHIS pest page says about reporting

Pest	Phone and form	What the page asks for
Emerald ash borer	Online EAB report form. Phone 1-866-322-4512 for questions or extra help.	The page does not list what to include. It lists signs: D-shaped exit holes, dead branches near the top of ash trees, excessive branching on the trunk, vertical cracks in the bark and more woodpecker activity. Page date April 23, 2026.
Asian longhorned beetle	Hotline 1-866-702-9938, or the APHIS online report form. In New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and South Carolina the page asks for the online form.	The page asks the reporter to try to photograph the beetle or the tree damage. Page date October 5, 2026.
Spotted lanternfly	No hotline on the page. A state drop-down lists the states with existing populations; other states go to the State plant regulatory official or State plant health director.	The page does not list what to include. Page date August 26, 2025.
Spongy moth	No hotline for sightings. Links to the State plant regulatory official and State plant health director.	The page does not list what to include. Page date September 17, 2026.
Ramorum	No hotline. Links to the National Plant Board member list and to the State plant health director.	The page does not list what to include. Page date February 7, 2026.

The spongy moth page and the ramorum page each name a federal policy contact by phone, but neither presents that line as a sighting hotline, so this page leaves the numbers out.

A state example: Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture lists the emerald ash borer as a regulated pest at state level on its emerald ash borer page. The page gives its Plant Protection line as 1-888-545-6684 and offers an online Report a Pest page. It shows no date. Each state runs its own reporting route, so a crew working across state lines meets a different page in each one.

Pests the agency names

The APHIS pages read for this page cover emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, spotted lanternfly, spongy moth and Phytophthora ramorum. The Asian longhorned beetle page says that regulated articles include firewood from all hardwood species and host material such as logs, green lumber, stumps, roots, branches and debris half an inch or more in diameter. It also says that landscapers, tree companies, firewood dealers and nurseries need a compliance agreement or permit before moving regulated articles out of a quarantine area. How each pest page treats tools, chips and wood is laid out side by side in the biosecurity table by pest.

For one pest at a time, the guides on emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle and spongy moth give the rules by country.