Redheaded Ash Borer
Contact: Eric Day, Manager, Insect Identification Laboratory
August 1996
Redheaded Ash Borer
Coleoptera: Cerambycidae, Neoclytus acuminatus
Plants Attacked
All dying or recently killed hardwoods,
especially oak, ash, hickory, and hackberry.
Description of Damage
Young larvae feed under the bark but
later enter the heart and sap wood and completely destroy it.
Plant parts attacked: trunk and main limbs. Damaging stages:
larvae.
Identification
Adults are elongate, cylindrical, and slender.
They are reddish brown with yellow cross bands on the wing
covers. The larvae are cylindrical and white in color and the
body is moderately hairy.
Life History
The adults emerge in June. They feed, mate, and
lay eggs in the cracks and crevices of the bark. These eggs
hatch and the young larvae bore into the bark and feed between
the bark and sapwood 4-6 weeks. They then enter the sap and
heart wood and completely destroy it. At maturity they construct
a pupal cell near the surface of the wood and pupate in early
spring.
Control
Control procedures are not necessary since only dying
or cut wood is attacked.
Remarks
This is often a household nuisance pest since adults
may emerge from fuel logs.