After severely affecting twenty-eight counties across Pennsylvania, researchers are claiming to have detected the emerald ash borer, the plant-killing beetle closer to Erie County. Is Erie the next target of the tree-killing beetle?

After Venango, Bucks, Franklin, Jefferson, Perry and Snyder, officials fear that the beetle has approached Erie. Crew members of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture have already started their researching processes over the trees to determine about the possible spread of the killer beetle.

In their effort, the department has urged the residents for their big help. They have requested the residents in the region to not lug firewood beyond the area where it was purchased to help them prevent the beetle's spread.

The deadly emerald ash borer beetle is very string in killing ash trees. It takes only three years to the beetle to entirely damage the tree. Departments have next advised the residents to immediately contact the pest control officials if they see beetles anywhere around them.

The beetles were first detected in Michigan in the year 2002. Fears rose higher when it started spreading to Butler County during summers of 2007 from where it spread to other many counties including Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Centre, Clarion, Cumberland, Fulton, Huntingdon, Indiana, Juniata, Lawrence, Lycoming, Mercer, Mifflin, Somerset, Sullivan, Union, Washington and Westmoreland.