I've seen one in Michigan

Folks, there are over one million species of beetle; nobody is going to be identifying your beetle using a simple description. I have a real problem with putting the mountain pine beetle on this list--it is a native species; just because we don't like how it is responding to changes in our forests does not make it invasive. The forests have evolved in tandem with its activities.

Well now I must say who ever is recording these insects ranges their listings are flawed.. I have happened to have seen many of them outside of the listed ranges.

there was this bettle with this black body and a yellowish baje stripe at the top half of it its fast, and 2&1/2 mm long i found it in my bed and it was crawling on me!its a skinny peanut shape if anyone can tell me what type it is please do it would really help!

I live in wisconsin and they are all over the garden I planted this year and have been since Early April all over our families pear tree. I didn't know that there was traps all around the town I live in, in order to establish boundaries to where the beatles can go. I am unsure how exactly they work and how they don't kill other wildlife. But I can definitely see a definitive change in the livelyhood of the herbs, vegetables and trees we have in the backyard.

I found a very similar large beetle in Ellensburg, WA, however it was white with black spots. I took a picture of it, I did not think it was real because it was so spectacular...but it was indeed real,hope it is not dangerous as well...if you need more info please contact me so I can forward the picture I took.

Thank you for posting pictures of these insects. It is good to know what they look like so we can report them to authorities if we see them. I know the natural resources people in the mid-western U.S. are trying to stop the spread of these insects and this may be helpful.

I have this last week noticed a small number of beetles on the screens of our country home in the Bristol hills near Canandaigua NY 14424. The beetle is about 3/4 inchis flat and mostly three shades of brown with I think are lighter small markings on its sides. they also have two 3/4 inch antanee. Are thes a problem and if so what can I do?

It is misplaced, at best, to blame the Bush administration for these invasions. Check your dates and facts before passing judgement. You also do not state if the number of occurances has actually changed. These types of things happen more and more as a result of the closeness of the global ecconomy.

We live in south MS and last fall we lost a 90' tall oak to this beetle, according to our tree specialist. It only took 3 months, after spotting the first dead branch, for the entire tree to die. He told us that they travel through the roots to neighboring trees and there is no way to stop them. Horrible! Now we can only wait?

Based on information received from acquaintances who work or who have worked for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), some of the recent invasions can be attributed to changes made to APHIS's mission and structure during the Bush administration. When the Department of Homeland Security was created, the APHIS port of entry inspectors who inspected imports for foreign insects and other unwanted "guests" were assigned to search instead for explosives and other materials of use by terrorists. Many of these inspectors had PhDs and were highly trained to spot invasive species; none knew how to spot terrorist materials. Those inspectors already were too few to do the job thoroughly and after the mission change became even fewer. due to retirements and protest resignations. I have heard, but do not now recall, what the drop was in percentage of imports inspected for invasive species, but I think it went from about 60% down to about 10% and is still pretty much at that level. At this level it is no wonder that invasives enter the country undetected.

that is why we need better safeguards to prevent or stop invasion of foreign species.

great!