State and federal officials are busy battling another infestation of the Asian long-horned beetle on Long Island.

So far, 500 trees have been removed from the infested area and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service plans on eliminating an additional 4,500 trees from a two-mile stretch near the Southern State Parkway in Suffolk County.

Over the last five years, New York State and federal agencies have spent $16 million dollars in an attempt to eradicate the beetle in the metropolitan area. They were hoping to announce the successful extermination of the pest — and then the newest infestation was discovered in 2013.

“When we heard about this expanded infestation, we were so disappointed,” said Joe Morrissey of New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

The beetles were first discovered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 1996 and are thought to have arrived in untreated packing crates and wooden pallets from China. The insects bore through the trunk of a tree, interrupting the movement of water and nutrients and causing it to starve and die.

The beetles are a pest of many hardwood trees like maple, willow, elm, and horsechestnut and threaten the East Coast’s large timber and maple syrup industries.

“We're basically in a war against an insect that could have severe economic consequences should it spread,” said Joseph Gittleman who heads the New York extermination for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Gittleman says that it could be another five years before the beetle is finally eradicated in New York.