Provided

One of the Japanese pine sawyer beetles, Monochamus alternatus, found in a Jamestown warehouse.

It's not every day that plumbing-supply warehouse employees get a chance to protect the environment. Tuesday, June 9, 1998, was one of those days.

Thanks to the employees' keen eyes and quick thinking, the area around Jamestown, N.Y., may have been spared an infestation of harmful Japanese pine sawyer beetles, which can destroy pine trees.

Employees at the Zurn Industries warehouse in Jamestown found live beetles stowing away in large packing crates full of freshly imported plumbing fixtures from China on June 9. Jeff Cupps, the facility manager at Zurn, remembered the Asian long-horned beetle infestation in Brooklyn two years ago and thought the beetles inside these crates looked similar.

Cupps called the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. That department then informed the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Cornell University entomology department in the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The state, federal and University officials all met in Jamestown on Thursday.

But the beetles found in the crates were not the Asian long-horned beetles, which attack hardwood trees, but the pine sawyers.

"We all bear the brunt with these incursions," said E. Richard Hoebeke, an entomologist and assistant curator of the Cornell University Insect Collection, who inspected the Jamestown warehouse. "Pests of this type are costly to the environment."

Dan Kepich of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that all the employees of Zurn were "incredibly cooperative" in breaking down the wooden crates so that more live specimens could be found. Kepich said that Cupps had his employees -- everyone from forklift operators to clerks -- make finding the beetles the priority of the day.

Commonly known as the Japanese pine sawyer, entomologists call the beetle Monochamus alternatus, and in areas of Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos and Tibet, it has been very destructive. For example, more than 2 million pine trees in the Jiangsu Province of the People's Republic of China have been destroyed as a result of an infestation since 1982.

Th beetle itself is not the problem, according to Hoebeke. It's the pinewood nematode, a microscopic wormlike organism, that rides inside the beetles that wreaks havoc with the pine trees. Hoebeke explains that when these beetles come into contact with a pine tree infested with these nematodes, the microscopic nematodes enter the beetles through spiracles. The spiracles are part of the beetles' breathing system.

Newly infected beetles then seek out healthy pines upon which to feed. It is this feeding on the young branches of healthy pines that pass along nematodes. The beetles lay eggs and once the beetle larvae go through development and pupate, once again the beetles become infested with the nematodes. The cycle starts over again.

The nematodes work their way into the tree and literally plug up the tree's vascular system, said Hoebeke. This kills the tree.

After a thorough inspection of the Zurn warehouse facility Thursday, the government and Cornell officials are confident that a potential infestation has been prevented. About 140 wooden crates were burned this morning at the Chataugua County Airport, which is near the warehouse.

Hoebeke checked today how the Chinese handled their infestation. They burned their trees, he found out. By burning the crates, "I guess we did the right thing," Hoebeke said.