USDA urges South Carolina residents to inspect trees for invasive beetle
August 19, 2026
Federal agriculture officials want South Carolina homeowners checking their yards this month for evidence of the Asian longhorned beetle, an invasive insect that hollows out hardwood trees from the inside until they die.
The beetle drills into trunks and limbs, cutting off the tree’s ability to move sap and leaving openings wide enough to slip a finger into. Maples are its favorite host, but birch, elm, willow and buckeye are also at risk.
Agriculture Under Secretary Dudley Hoskins said August offers the best window of the year for the public to find the insect, and that a short inspection turns ordinary residents into allies in the work of saving trees. Adults reach peak activity in late summer and often show up on decks, patios and lawn furniture.
The adult insect runs 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, with a lacquer-black body speckled in white, antennae banded in black and white, and legs that sometimes take on a blue tint.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists four warning signs: pencil-width circular openings in bark or limbs, shallow gouges chewed into the bark by egg-laying females, a residue resembling fine sawdust at the base of a tree or where limbs meet the trunk, and limb dieback with no obvious cause.
Sightings can be reported at 1-866-702-9938 or through the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website. Clear photographs help with identification, and specimens are useful as long as they are frozen.
An infested tree cannot be saved. Removal is the only option, the wood has to be chipped or burned, and the stump ground down even with the soil. South Carolina has recorded 13,121 infested trees, and roughly 34,000 trees have come down in the containment effort.
Native to China and Korea, the beetle is thought to have entered the United States in the 1990s inside untreated wooden shipping crates. New Jersey and Illinois have since driven it out entirely.
The South Carolina outbreak surfaced in 2020 after a Hollywood resident reported the insect. A Clemson University Department of Plant Industry inspector confirmed the report on site, documenting no fewer than four infested maples and collecting live specimens. Portions of Charleston and Dorchester counties have been under quarantine since.
Larvae bore into the interior of trunks and branches, carving galleries as they feed. On reaching maturity, the beetle gnaws an escape route to the surface, then turns to the tree’s foliage and bark for food before breeding.
The South Carolina Forestry Commission said eggs hatch anywhere from a fortnight to two months later depending on temperature, and full maturity typically takes one to two years. Flight range tops out around a mile and a half, though most beetles stay within roughly half a mile of where they hatched.
Photo source: USDA
