DNR: No sign of tree-killing insect in SW Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Department of Natural Resources says traps set in southwestern Indiana show no signs of an invasive insect that has infested ash trees in the remainder of the state.

Over the past seven months, the DNR strategically set traps in five southwestern counties — Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick. State entomologist Phil Marshall says 82 traps were set and none captured any of the insects.

DNR experts also conducted visual surveys of eight other area counties.

The remainder of Indiana's 92 counties are covered by a quarantine outlawing movement of any ash wood out of their boundaries.

Twenty-eight quarantined counties didn't have infestations when the year began, but in the ensuing months the insect was found in Bloomington, Franklin, and Lafayette and in Henry, Newton and Wayne counties.