The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the City of Chicago released Thursday a statement announcing the official eradication from Illinois of the Asian longhorned beetle, the pest responsible for the destruction of more than 1,500 trees in the northeast of the state.

"The key to success is early pest detection," said Bruce Knight, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Illinois is the first state to declare victory against the invasive insect, which was discovered in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago in 1998. The last sighting of the pest was in 2003, around Chicago’s Oz Park. The last precautionary chemical treatments took place in the Oz Park area in 2006. After four years without a sign of the insect, authorities decided to make the state’s victory against it official.

"This successful eradication would not have been possible without the solid partnership between federal, state and local governments fighting (the beetle) in Illinois," said Knight in the released statement.

Between 1998 and 2006, around 1,700 trees were destroyed, in an attempt to eradicate the Asian beetle in Chicago.

The Asian longhorned beetle is native to China and several other areas in eastern Asia, where it causes the destruction of poplar, maple, elm and willow trees. An adult insect, coal black with white spots, measures about 1 inch in length and has a pair of very long antennae striped in black and white. The insect has an incredibly voracious appetite for wood, destroying large numbers of trees in short periods of time.

USDA is currently trying, together with its state and local government partners to eradicate the pest in New York and New Jersey, where it still represents an issue.