West Virginia Department of Agriculture Commissioner Gus R. Douglass says that an insect that has been known to destroy ash trees in North America by the millions has now been found in Clay County.
The department first found the bug in Fayette County in 2007.
Since then, it's spread to Morgan, Roane, Calhoun, Nicholas, Raleigh, Brooke, Berkeley, Greenbrier, Gilmer, Hancock, Kanawha, Mingo, Summers, Webster, Wirt and now Clay.
The destructive insect bores larva into the bark of ash trees and prevents the trees from receiving a steady flow of nutrients.
It is responsible for the deaths of about 25-million ash trees in the United States and Canada.
About three percent of West Virginia's woodland population consists of ash.
Officials say they are not aware of an effective way to fight the insect, other than to try to keep it from spreading.
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