news story / By Bob Doran

Invasion of the Auger!

Nasty, virulent beetle likely loose in Arcata, thanks to Homeland Security

(Sept. 18, 2008)  The ugly little creature has more than one alias. In some places they call it the “auger beetle,” because it bores into wood like an auger. It’s also called the “false powder post beetle,” because it acts like a similar critter that leaves a pile of powdery sawdust outside the hole it drills. And it’s called the “dunnage beetle” since it will sometimes travel from place to place in packing materials.

And that’s how the exotic pest, a ferocious and destructive consumer of wood products, made its way to Arcata this summer — hitching a ride on some wooden crates from India, which were never inspected at the border, and then, in all likelihood, escaping into the wild.

GALLERY >

Thanks to accidents in geography and climate, it appears that there’s no need to panic. But the story of the little vermin’s arrival in Humboldt County, courtesy of the global economy and a decrepit federal regulatory structure, may be its own cause for concern.

The crates in question contained a shipment for Humboldt State Humboldt State University’s Schatz Energy Research Laboratory, sent from a manufacturer in Gujarat, India. Schatz had ordered a piece of equipment called a “biomass gasifier,” which would be used to help gauge the amount of energy that could be created from various forms of waste.

The crates sat out in the open for a month or more before anyone got around to opening them. When they did, they noticed that there was more than equipment in them — there were strange, suspicious little piles of wood dust.

Red flags went up, and the lab the called university Environmental Heath and Safety Coordinator Tom Manoli, who in turn called the county agriculture commission. They sent out an inspector, David Juliano, who came and took specimens.

Juliano sent specimens to a lab in Sacramento, which identified the pest in the crates as Sinoxylon anale — the above-mentioned wood destroying auger/false powder post beetle. The state lab sent back instructions to burn the crates right away. The Schatz techs filled the Indian crates with any wood that had come from overseas, put the crates in the gravel lot behind the lab, doused the piles with kerosene and set them afire, presumably immolating all of the remaining pests.

But had any escaped during the time that the crates sat unopened?

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