Globalized trade enables wood-destroying insects, such as the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis), to be unintentionally imported via infested sawn or packaging wood. As a consequence of climate change, these insects are finding increasingly better living conditions in Central Europe; so far, however, they have no natural enemies and can therefore spread rapidly.
In this research project, we are developing and testing an effective control procedure for the inspection of imported goods and wood-based packaging with regard to infestation by insect pests. This could be utilized by, for example, timber merchants and surveillance authorities. The aspired objective of the project is a practicable and economical detection method which encompasses a visual inspection of deliveries and an additional acoustic examination of suspicious samples.
Step 1 - Visual inspection of the delivery
In the first step of the control procedure, imports of wood products and wood-based packaging are to be visually inspected. In the case of infestation being suspected, samples are to be selected and taken for further testing (Step 2).
Within the framework of the research project, we are developing a strategy for the visual inspection as well as handling instructions for sample selection by means of easily ascertainable visual infestation characteristics (visible imagines, larvae, boreholes, burrows, bore dust, etc.). The customary expert knowledge which is applied in the damage analysis of timber constructions can hereby be relied upon.
Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research 
