By August 2010, the STB had defoliated about 23 miles of tamarisk along the Rio Grande near Presidio, but it was causing concern by also defoliating the related but non-target athel tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla) trees, a taller species of tamarisk used around Presidio and neighboring Mexican communities for shade (Haines 2010).
Within these regions it has spread, most dramatically and noticeably in central Australia after floods of 1974 along the Finke River in the Northern Territory.