Beetlemania in the Public Garden

State agricultural-resources worker scans Public Garden tree for beetle signs as a Channel 4 cameraman records the action.

Experts from the state Department of Agricultural Resources gave volunteers a lesson in spotting signs of Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation this afternoon - then led the first ever survey of trees in the Public Garden for signs of the tree-killing pests.

About a dozen adults - including members of the Friends of the Public Garden - and a like number of high-school students from Essex County, didn't find anything as they searched for round, pencil-sized holes on the willows, elms and maples surrounding the Lagoon (the crapapple and cherry trees are safe; the beetle doesn't cotton to their taste).

Jennifer Forman Orth, who led the training, said she wasn't really expecting to find the beetle in Boston, because to date it's only shown up in Worcester and some surrounding towns. But given the way the beetle spreads - through wood from infested areas brought in by people looking for firewood or by companies that use wooden pallets for shipping in goods from China - Boston's at risk, she said.

If you want to do your own survey, go out midday (fewer shadows) and look up as high as you can for the holes, for the beetles themselves, at least in the summer and fall, or for small notches the female beetle bores to lay eggs in (one egg per notch, and each notch takes about 45 minutes to carve out). BeetleBusters has photos, as well as an animation that you think is about to drink some orange juice.

Orth displays some actual beetle boreholes in an actual segment of a tree from Worcester (fumigated extensively, so don't worry about it spreading the bugs).