Costly cargo

Illinois businesses are at the front lines in the war against the Asian long-horned beetle and other exotic pests that hitch rides on trade goods

by Stephanie Zimmermann

In a low, blond-brick building on Chicago's North Side, tucked between some elevated train tracks and a Fannie May Candy outlet, is the Polar Hardware Manufacturing Co. For more than 20 years, workers at Polar have fashioned hinges, locks and handles for trucks, buses and refrigerators out of raw metal shipped from southern China. The business isn't anything flashy, just one of thousands of companies scattered like so many trees across the Illinois landscape.

Low-profile Polar hardly sounds like the sort of place that would lure federal officials, entomologists, Chinese dignitaries and television news reporters. Surreal though it was, last fall they descended on the modest company to do battle with an inch-long beetle. Polar is thought to be where, roughly seven years ago, a nasty-looking, quarter-sized, spotted bug called the Asian long-horned beetle escaped from some wooden shipping crates and burrowed into a neighborhood tree. No one at Polar saw the beetle, but once outside the company's building, it quietly laid a couple dozen eggs inside the center of the tree — eggs that would create a new generation of larvae that would gnaw their way back out as adult beetles and move on to their next leafy victims. Currently, there is no insecticide cure for the problem once the beetles get inside the trees. There are no natural predators here. Infested trees must be chopped, chipped and burned or the beetles will keep spreading.

The Asian long-horned beetle

No one knows when that first beetle got out, or which tree was first to be infested, or whether there were other beetles attacking other trees in the area. But by the time the infestation was discovered last summer when a park district employee saw a beetle in firewood chopped from a downed tree, more than 700 trees were doomed in Chicago's North Side Ravenswood neighborhood and its suburbs. Alarms were sounding coast to coast that beetles could be ravaging America's forests.

The impact on tree-lined Ravenswood and on properties in suburban Addison and Summit has been devastating, as was a 1996 infestation that claimed a staggering 3, 000 or so trees in New York.

But the Asian long-horned beetle isn't just creating environmental headaches. Now it is posing a second threat to businesses across the country that sell everything from computer components to Christmas decorations. New regulations designed to keep the beetle out of this country are

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keeping imports from reaching their business destinations on time. And in the worst cases, goods aren't reaching the businesses at all.

Last December, in a bid to stop more of the beetles from entering the United States, the federal government imposed tough new trade restrictions on businesses importing goods from China in wooden packing materials. Importers already had been expected to comply with a ban on the use of bark in packing materials to help stop pests from hitching rides here. Now, companies bringing in goods from China must either use U.S.-made containers or make sure the Chinese wood is fumigated, heat-treated or treated with preservatives. Anything else will be shipped back or destroyed.

The restrictions have gotten the immediate attention of the Chinese government and American business, because wood is the cheapest way to pack cargo and is present in up to one- half of all the shipments coming from China.

Knowing full well the political and economic issues surrounding the toughened rules, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman stood last fall in shady Welles Park in the heart of Chicago's beetle quarantine area to defend the regulations as "a health and safety issue." Left unchecked, the beetles could cause some $41 billion in damage to U.S. forest products and fruit, maple syrup, nursery and tourist industries, not to mention urban trees.

The Chinese government, as might be expected in a nation that does $80 billion in trade with the United States — up from just $5 billion in 1985 — isn't happy about rules it says are unfair and could harm business. And the Chinese shippers who load the cargo containing wooden crates, pallets and loose packing wood onto planes and ships bound for our shores are even less enthusiastic about complying with the new regulations.

As a result, compliance is nearly nonexistent. Up to 95 percent of the 700 to 800 shipments that come through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport from China each month lack the required documentation that says whether and how the wood was treated. Because of this, understaffed U.S. Department of Agriculture workers are scrambling to personally check samples of these shipments, and the goods are routinely arriving late at their Illinois destinations.

"Come Monday morning, we have almost three days' worth of cargo to go through," says Joe Schafer of the federal agriculture department, who heads that agency's war on the beetle in Illinois. "It delays or slows down the business or even stops it."

The goods that arrive in wooden packaging include everything from machine parts to circuit boards to clothes. The types of goods coming through O'Hare tend to be lightweight and valuable, such as computer products. After landing in Chicago, the shipments go to Illinois-based companies or move on to other cities. Still other shipments are held on the East or West Coasts for inspection, then brought here by rail.

Some of the crates have no certification; others have certification but are infested with bugs anyway. Some are certified, but have untreated wood hidden on the inside or beetle-chewed wood that's plugged up with filler. "It's all 'catch me if you can,'" Schafer says.

The hassles experienced by the inspectors translate into headaches and costly delays for businesses facing deadlines.

At Polar Hardware, Vice President Robert Albert expects his Chinese orders to be a week late and builds that lag into his purchasing and sales plans. Most of the companies he deals with are forgiving. But when one client immediately needed an order of parts held up for inspection, Albert had to replace the missing shipment with parts from a U.S. supplier and pay a premium.

"We're dealing with it," says Albert, who, at the epicenter of the tree destruction, is more understanding than most business owners. "I'm glad they are doing it because I don't want to see any more beetles come in."

Other businesses have had worse problems. A few undocumented shipments arriving at O'Hare have been sent back to China or had their containers destroyed. Even intact but late shipments can mess up production lines and disrupt distribution schedules. "I had a broker call and tell me they had an assembly line shut down because of missing cargo," Schafer says.

At Fellowes, the Itasca-based international office supply company, delays in overseas shipments of computer mice, paper shredders and other products from China are becoming commonplace, says Marti Folena, the company's international transportation manager. "Yes, we have had some delays with the containers basically being stopped [on the West Coast] for inspections," Folena says. "They haven't been significant delays, maybe one to two days. But in the grand scheme of things, a one- or two-day delay could affect our inventory levels and our distribution."

There are only three full-time federal employees looking for beetles on cargo arriving here — two at O'Hare and one at the U.S. Customs office in downtown Chicago. Given the low level of staffing, it's perhaps understandable that the Asian long- horned beetle has entered the state and that many experts think it's probably feasting on maples, willows, chestnuts and other popular trees in towns across the nation.

In fact, there have been 26 beetle sightings in warehouses in 14 states. And last April word got out that another potentially dangerous exotic pest — the citrus long-horned beetle — had been found in an Athens, Ga., greenhouse that imports bonsai trees from China. The citrus beetle, which dines on everything from citrus trees to pecan, pear, hibiscus and Australian pine trees, could be especially devastating if it gained a foothold in the U.S. South.

Recent experience with exotic bugs and plants shows how hard it can be to put the genie back into the bottle — or the insect into ajar of formaldehyde — once exotics get into the environment.

For example, the Illinois Department of Agriculture has been quietly battling European and Asian gypsy moths for 25 years. And this fall, it may place portions of northern Illinois under quarantine. That's because the gypsy moths, which arrive in this country as

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eggs laid on shipments that have been sitting outside at their departure ports, have invaded neighboring Wisconsin to such an extent that Illinois' tree-spraying program is being overrun. "Within the next two or three years, we'll probably see an explosion on the North Shore, Lake County, McHenry County, DuPage County and probably Cook," says Stan Smith, the ag department's nursery manager and chief beetle expert.

The gypsy moths, zebra mussels and Mediterranean fruit flies of the world get a lot of press, but thankfully, most exotic plants and animals never cause problems. "We get pests all the time," Smith says. "Fortunately, probably 98 to 99 percent of the time, they don't establish themselves. But it's a constant pressure."

The hope among some officials fighting the Asian long-horned beetle is that American businesses, as they suffer the hassles of late-arriving imports, will pressure their shippers in China to comply with the rules.

A delegation of Chinese officials visited the Chicago quarantine area last fall, stopping in at Polar Hardware and other sites. The tour didn't convince them the beetle is a problem made in China. "You cannot prove that it is from China," says Yuan Kewen, first secretary for commercial affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, who took part in the visit last fall. "This is discrimination against China." Yuan says the new shipping rules should be applied evenly to all nations sending goods to the United States in wooden material, not only to prevent the long-horned beetle but to stop other pests. "You cannot just single out China for these rules," says Yuan, who predicts they will harm trade between the two countries. Despite this, he says, "China is still doing its best."

Chicago Alderman Eugene Schulter, whose 47th Ward includes much of the Ravenswood quarantine area, says there's palpable defensiveness on the part of some Chinese officials. After watching whole blocks nearly cleared of towering shade trees, Schulter is unsympathetic. "The rule is absolutely a necessity," he says. "We've got to do everything we can to protect our country and our environment.... We've got to cut the source off."

With the roar of chain saws now a familiar sound in Ravenswood, officials are confident they've taken out the worst of the Asian beetle infestation. But they won't know about additional damage until this month or next, when the adult beetles

The Asian long-horned beetle at a glance • What they look like: About one and a half inches long, with a shiny black body and white dots. The antennae are longer than the body, with alternating bands of black and white. • Trees they attack: Maple, horse chestnut, poplar, willow, elm, mulberry and black locust, as well as others. • How they reproduce: Adult females lay eggs in bark. The larvae spend the winter in the heartwood, then adult beetles exit the tree the following summer, leaving dime-sized holes. • Telltale signs: Sap flowing from exit holes and sawdust left behind as the beetles emerge. • How to get rid of them: Cut down, chip and burn every infested tree. • If you see one: Call the Illinois Department of Agriculture at (800) 641 -3934. Stephanie Zimmermann

start gnawing their way out of the trees. Trees in the three-mile-wide quarantine area will have to be checked for the next few years at least.

Meanwhile, scientists are working feverishly to devise a strategy for the next infestation. Researchers are studying everything from black light traps to draw beetles out of trees (a limited test last fall didn't work) to other traps using synthetic beetle sex hormones or tree scents. The federal department of agriculture also is studying the beetle's natural enemies in China, such as tiny, parasitic worms. And, even though insecticides are not effective once a tree is infested, researchers are working to find a preventative insecticide.

The bright side is that some of the world's foremost beetle experts are bringing their brainpower to Illinois. "I think we have gained ground tremendously," says the federal agency's Schafer. "New York is now looking at our technique here. We have done some innovative things."

The bad news is that Illinois and other states such as New York and California may need all the help they can get. More than a million shipments arrive in the United States from China every year, many of them in wood packaging. Discoveries of insects on those shipments, including the long-horned beetle, have been growing steadily. "The thinking is it has to be somewhere else. We just don't think New York and Chicago are the only places it could get out," Smith says.

Polar Hardware's Albert doesn't like the thought that his business was unwittingly where the misery started in Illinois. The beetle has to be elsewhere in the United States, he believes. "We're a very small user of the stuff," he says of the foundry they ship from in China. "I can't believe we're the only ones."

Indeed, an infestation of 150 trees recently was found in New York, seven miles from the nearest previous site, which was in Brooklyn three years earlier. One theory is that a completely new set of beetles may have invaded that area. With trade between the United States and China climbing ever higher, the Asian long- horned beetle could be munching through shade trees in any number of towns right now. "We hope for the best and just wait to see," Schafer says. "It's entirely possible." 

Stephanie Zimmermann is a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times.

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