From Russian, With Love

A while back, I posted about the spread of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis, EAB) in Russia, but I didn't really have much to say about it, since the article I was referencing was in Russian and I could not translate it. Now I have discovered that John Peter Thompson of the Invasive Notes blog has poked and prodded his Russian wife until she translated the entire article. From the translation we learn that problems with Russian ash trees were first observed in 2002 - it seems to have taken scientists a while to nail down the cause as the EAB. More important may be the fact that the EAB has several different host plants, including not only several ash (Fraxinus) species, but walnut (Juglans) and elm (Ulmus) as well! It is definitely worth a moment to click over to John Peter's blog and read the post. Thanks, John Peter! John Peter's wife! ;-)