MADISON, Wis. -- Tree experts armed with chainsaws started fanning out in search of the emerald ash borer on Thursday with the goal of stopping the insect from destroying Wisconsin's trees.

Forestry technicians Jodie Carroll and Kay Kromm were busy Thursday taking down perfectly good trees.

In the coming months, 6,000 ash trees in 30 Wisconsin counties are either coming down or going to be fatally wounded.

"I do not know if (the emerald ash borer) is here or not, but we're going to find out," Carroll said.

"Its larvae will be between the bark and the wood, so what I'm doing is stripping off the bark to see if I can find the larvae or any evidence of it," Kromm said.

Carroll said the trees left standing will act as bait for the ash borer.

"You don't want to kill the tree, but you want to injure it. The bug is attracted to an injured tree," Carroll said.

The prolific emerald ash borer, nicknamed the Green Menace, is from northern China. It likely arrived in Detroit via shipping crates, and it has wiped out some 28 million Michigan ash trees in just four years.

The insect has flown or hitchhiked on firewood into Indiana, Ohio, and of last summer, into the northern suburbs of Chicago.

While Chinese ash trees have resistance against the insect, America's do not.

"It has the potential to kill every ash tree on the North American continent. So, it could be billions of ash trees standing dead before it's all over," said Adrian Barta, state coordinator of the emerald ash borer program.

In Wisconsin, where trees and tourism and quality of life all blend together, there more than 700 million ash trees in forests. It's estimated that 30 percent of the state's trees are likely ash.

The Department of Ag Trade & Consumer Protection is also seeking help from property owners because many ash trees are on private property.

Experts said any hope of stopping the insect in Wisconsin will come with early detection.

For more information, people can visit the new state Web site on the emerald ash borer.