Large purple box traps will be used again this summer in trees throughout Kenosha County to test for the presence of the Emerald Ash Borer, but more invasive testing will cease.

Mick Skwarok, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, said the state has discontinued the process of girdling and harvesting trees in the city of Kenosha.

“The use of that tactic as a survey tool will not be applied this year,” he said.

But, the department will increase the number of purple traps in the county, especially in the Paddock Lake area, where a tree replanted from an Illinois nursery was found to be infested with the metallic-green beetle.

The tree was destroyed and investigators believe no emerald ash borers emerged from it after it was replanted in Wisconsin.

“We are still confident nothing happened as a result of that,” Skworak said. “But we will beef up our survey efforts in that area.”

Still, most agree it is only a matter of time until the beetle will make its way into the county.

“The outlook certainly is not good for Kenosha County,” Skworak said. “Kenosha is trapped in the middle with well established infestation to the south and now a significant infestation to the north.”

State officials announced this week the infestation that straddles the Ozaukee and Washington county line near the village of Newburg is too large to completely eradicate it.

Surveys conducted by state and federal agencies since August 2008 reveal the infestation covers nearly 5,000 acres, or 8 square miles, in an area that could contain as many as 50,000 ash trees.

“A researcher at Michigan State University has also concluded that some of the infested trees in the area have been harboring EAB for five years,” said Brian Kuhn, director of the Wisconsin Plant Industry Bureau.

Given the size and age of the infestation, the focus will now be to slow the spread of the beetle.

A quarantine on hardwood firewood, ash nursery stock and other ash products is in place in Ozaukee, Washington, Fond du Lac and Sheboygan counties, as well as in northern Illinois.