The emerald ash borer, a destructive pest responsible for killing millions of ash trees in North America, has been confirmed in Peoria and Tazewell counties.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) today announced the detections occurred in residential areas of the two central Illinois counties. In Peoria County, arborists discovered the beetle first near Dunlap and then subsequently in Peoria. In Tazewell, IDOA staff made the find in Minier using surveillance traps.

The emerald ash borer is a small, metallic-green beetle native to Asia. Its larvae burrow into the bark of ash trees, causing the trees to starve and eventually die. Since the first detection of the pest near Detroit, Mich., in 2002, it has killed an estimated 250 million ash trees.

The quarantine currently includes 49 Illinois counties and is intended to prevent the artificial or "human-assisted" spread of the beetle through the movement of potentially-infested wood and nursery stock, including ash trees, limbs and branches as well as all types of firewood.

The emerald ash borer often is difficult to detect, especially in newly-infested trees. Signs of infestation include thinning and yellowing leaves, D-shaped holes in the bark of the trunk or branches and basal shoots.Anyone who suspects an ash tree has been infested should contact their county Extension office, their village forester or the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

The counties under quarantine are Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Champaign, Clark, Coles, Cook, Cumberland, DeKalb, DeWitt, Douglas, DuPage, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Macon, Marion, Marshall, McHenry, McLean, Mercer, Moultrie, Ogle, Piatt, Putnam, Rock Island, Shelby, Stark, Stephenson, Vermilion, Warren, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago and Woodford.