The aggressive Redbay Ambrosia beetle is no bigger than Abraham Lincoln’s nose on a penny, but over the last two decades, the invasive insect has managed to kill more than 500 million trees in North America – and now it has arrived on Long Island, bringing its disease, laurel wilt, along with it.

Experts postulate that the dark-brown bug migrated north via firewood brought in from southern states where the insect has decimated sassafras, spicebush, camphor, swampbay, redbay and avocado trees. Aside from the loss of tree canopy, these decimated forests have a deep ecological impact because endangered pollinators such as butterflies depend on these plants for survival.

”The impact was just unseen before, and it was, and just unbelievably rapid, almost like some other type of natural distur

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