Courtesy Clemson University
news@thepccourier.com

CHARLESTON — An aptly named invasive pest, the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) snuck into South Carolina for the first time in 2020 and established a toehold in Lowcountry hardwood trees.

A toehold will be all the insect gets if a coalition of federal and state officials, local property owners and Clemson researchers has its way. The team has organized one of the Palmetto State’s largest and most coordinated responses to an invasive species, leading to a recently expanded quarantine of 76.4 square miles in Charleston County and a sliver of Dorchester.

“We feel pretty confident that the ALB is contained within the area,” said Steven Long, assistant director of Clemson

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