If you purchased packaged firewood from Menards recently. Burn it.
The firewood shipped from Taylors Wood Products of Illinois may be infested with the Emerald Ash Borer. A beetle that could devastate the state's seven hundred million ash trees if it spreads.
Mick Skwarok, a disease specialist with the state Department of Agriculture, says the risk may be small but Wisconsin can't take any chances.
If you purchased any of that wood, sold almost exclusively at Menards, Skwarok says burn it as soon as possible. That should kill off any of the larvae still hiding under the bark waiting to take flight in a few weeks to start its tree eating cycle again.
Menards reportedly has stopped selling the wood and the Illinois company has been cited for violating the federal quarantine.
The state has been cutting and checking trees since December and so far no sign of the tree killing insects have been found.
At least twenty-million ash trees have been destroyed by the insects in surrounding Midwest states including Michigan and Illinois.
