It's a killer, and it may be lurking in your yard!
It's called an Emerald Ash Borer, and it is responsible for much of the dead foliage along Pennsylvania's highways.
In fact, those of you who travel to State College often can see the damage along Route 322.
Plus, if you work or live in Harrisburg the trees on the Capitol lawn are a familiar sight-- you'd never know they were fighting a deadly predator.
Right now, Donald Eggen knows all about the grim future these trees face… his job even revolves around it!
His team at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are in a race against time-- and against the Emerald Ash Borer-- to save the ash trees in Pennsylvania.
Donald predicts they're losing, and that most of the 308 million ash trees in the state will die.
The Borer comes in two forms: larvae and adult. So far they've infested 55 counties, and officials predict that eventually the entire state will have a borer problem.
The beetles can be detected by the "D" shaped holes they bore in trees, but by the time they are noticeable it is too late.
The state's strategy has now turned to prevention. Insecticides can be effective at stopping beetles.. but there are steps to take if you think you have an Ash Borer problem.
"Determine if you have an ash tree, determine the health of your ash tree, determine if you want to keep that ash tree or not. If you don't want to keep it,have a tree arbitor take it now while its safe to do so," says Eggen.
Luckily for Donald and his team, they aren't the only ones after the beetles. Woodpeckers love to eat Emerald Ash Borers.
But for now, it's an uphill battle.
"We're not going to save all the ash trees. It's not going to happen," he says.