SALT LAKE CITY — Emerald ash borers are infesting states across the country, and they're on their way to Utah, officials said.
But researchers at BYU study may have found a way to eliminate the problematic pests.
The emerald ash borer was originally discovered in Michigan in 2002 and since has killed more than 50 million ash trees. Since entering Colorado in 2013, threats for the beetles moving to Utah have increased.
BYU researchers looked at beetle visual systems and found that the emerald ash borer and its relatives are unique in that they can detect blue light. The researchers say the findings could help insect prevention specialists find solutions to slowing the spread of emerald ash borers and even eliminating them altogether.
Jack Wilbur, information specialist with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said preventing an emerald ash borer infestation in Utah is nearly impossible.
"Things like the Rockies can't stop it even," Wilbur said.
Kristopher Watson, Utah state entomologist, calls the emerald ash borer a very "invasive species" and "one of the most destructive forest insects to ever invade the U.S."
The beetles are a shiny, emerald-green color, and are about a half-inch long and 1/8 inch in diameter, Watson said.
The beetles are good flyers, but the risk of contamination to Utah comes more heavily from people bringing firewood across the border, especially from ash trees, he said.
Watson anticipates the inevitable infestation of emerald ash borers to Utah within the next three years.
After the beetles reached Boulder, Colorado, in the fall of 2013, BYU assistant professor Seth Bybee joined other researchers to find information about the emerald ash borers to aid insect controllers in stopping the pests.
Bybee's study was published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology in May.
Governmental forces devoted to beetle control have been supportive of the BYU study and hope to find solutions to the infestations, Bybee said.
Nathan Lord, a postdoctoral fellow who worked with Bybee on the research, said beetles in general have an inability to see the color blue. But previous studies found that beetles were drawn specifically to purple traps instead of black or green, and Lord wanted to find out why.
BYU researchers found that the jewel beetles and their relatives, including emerald ash borers, have developed a way to work around their inability to detect blue. The beetles have created copies of opsin genes for other colors, making them sensitive to blue light.
The jewel beetles use their developed ability to detect blue, helping them find mates and host trees, Lord said.
He said the "pie in the sky" plans for insect controllers are to initiate a way to shut down the opsins, thus keeping the beetles from mating and finding a home.
Watson said this would be great news for Utah and the rest of the country.
"If there is a way they can stop or eliminate the emerald ash borer, it'd be huge, not only for us here locally in Utah, but it would be big nationally," Watson said. "You're talking about reducing the risk to multiple millions of trees, as well as probably billions of dollars of loss."
Bybee said his lab is now working on a project including the vision evolution of all beetles in hopes to control other pests as well.
Email: ahobbs@deseretnews.com