TARRANT COUNTY, Texas -- It took an 11-year-old naturalist to find one, but the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive tree-killing beetle from Asia, has been confirmed in Tarrant County.
The Texas A&M Forest Service on Wednesday tweeted that the finding is the farthest west occurrence of the species in Texas, which was first detected in the U.S. in 2002 and has since spread to 33 states.
The forest service began investigating the beetle in Tarrant County this summer after a young naturalist, 11-year-old Sam Hunt, photographed the unusual insect, which is tiny, shiny and green.
It was the first reported sighting of the beetle in North Texas. It was first spotted in the state in Harrison County in Northeast Texas.
The forest service didn't say how widespread the beetles are in Tarrant County, but the bugs can be destructive. They're known for tunneling under the bark of ash trees, disrupting the flow of nutrients in the tree and eventually killing it within 2-3 years.
In Michigan, where it was first spotted, the beetle has reportedly killed tens of millions of ash trees, from neighborhoods to forests. The beetle most likely arrived in Michigan on a shipment of wood-packing materials from Asia, according to the state's Department of Natural Resources.
"It's a pretty serious forest health problem," Courtney Blevins, a regional forester with the Texas A&M service, told WFAA in August.