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Recently, within the last few months, there was one large tract of land close to me that was timbered off. It was somewhere around 1200 acres and I had asked why. The answer was the Emerald Ash Borer. The logger they hired came in to specifically harvest just their Ash trees. Apparently this little pest has spread far and wide and is threatening to kill all of our ash trees. Since this invasion is impossible to stop; the idea is remove the trees before they help spread the pest. They even recommend simply cutting the trees down and letting them lay or girthing the trees since these [pest do not like their Ash trees dead: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/documents/E-2943.pdf.
I thought my Ash trees looked great and had no problems; but I did not know what I was looking for and now I do:
So it would be wise for me to take mine down and put them to good use before they help spread the problem even further. The only problem I have trying to find out if there are any left that were unaffected?
How many trees do you have? If it isn't a huge number, you can treat them with a systemic insecticide. You treat the tree and any insect that takes a bite will die
Buy the systemic at a farm supply in a large container instead of small amounts at the nursery.
How many trees do you have? If it isn't a huge number, you can treat them with a systemic insecticide. You treat the tree and any insect that takes a bite will die
Buy the systemic at a farm supply in a large container instead of small amounts at the nursery.
I have only about a dozen trees; so I could try a systemic insecticide. Although some of the trees are close to where I want to plant a garden and I don't like systemics around the garden. In the meantime I can check with the local garden stores and ask their recommendations. That one Michigan link did not sound too promising. I believe that the Ash trees on large tracts of land will probably not survive and that is why they are harvesting.
Have they started sampling populations up there yet? We've had the sampling boxes down here for several years (one resident reported them as a landing guidance for black helicopters. She had even signed the waiver for a box to be put in one of her trees).
Have they started sampling populations up there yet? We've had the sampling boxes down here for several years (one resident reported them as a landing guidance for black helicopters. She had even signed the waiver for a box to be put in one of her trees).
No; I have not seen the traps. What was interesting about that article was this comment: "Today the pest has been detected in 15 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin." But if you Google when was the emerald ash borer first found in the US they say in 2002 and they show this map with 25 states: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...9QEwAHoECAYQBg. For only 16 years in our Country this little pest has spread like wildfire; regardless if it is 15 or 25 states.
Because of the very fast spread; that is why systemics might be like holding your finger in the hole in the dyke. If you start down that path you would have to do it all the time.
My husband's brother in law is an arborist in upstate NY. He treats ash borers. I would strongly suggest getting a consultation from an arborist. I do not think this is a DIY project. you may need a license to buy and apply the insecticide.
My husband's brother in law is an arborist in upstate NY. He treats ash borers. I would strongly suggest getting a consultation from an arborist. I do not think this is a DIY project. you may need a license to buy and apply the insecticide.
It sounds, from what I am reading; that many that own acreage are simply giving up and harvesting what they can before there is no good wood to harvest. Of course it does not mean that it isn't a good idea to check with an arborist.
It sounds, from what I am reading; that many that own acreage are simply giving up and harvesting what they can before there is no good wood to harvest. Of course it does not mean that it isn't a good idea to check with an arborist.
Check with your county extension agent. Chemical treatment is good for city home owners with a couple trees and a space between neighbors. Treatment costs ~$25/tree and has to be repeated each year.= not a good choice for a guy with a wood-lot out in the sticks.
If the damage done to your tree in the picture was from the ash borer (and not antlers or a BigFoot with an itchy back)) it may be too late for you to harvest-- once they're in your lot, you can't move the stuff- in fact, they might condemn & quarantine the whole county.
I'm a forester so I've been dealing with this pest which has just recently been confirmed in Vermont, where I live. It was here well before it was confirmed, that's the problem, you don't really notice it until it's bad. It's confirmed to be about 10 miles from my own land which doesn't have a lot of ash but does have some nice ones. I plan to treat about 6 of the nicest ones on my little 10 acre woodlot. It's not practical to treat many of them. They will require periodic treatment for as long as there are no biological controls for the EAB. Some of the chemicals are readily available, some only to licensed persons. Some are more effective than others. For the initial treatment this year I'll likely use a more affordable option but as it moves in, in the future, with a higher load of the pests, I'll use more potent options which will require less frequent treatment and are more effective. There's more or less a bell curve to the population when it hits. It starts small, builds up to massive numbers, and declines when the mature ash are largely depleted. But it persists in low levels and can come back when the next generation of ash matures.
There's ongoing research with parasitoids for control that is promising but it'll be years at best before that takes off well enough to control the EAB. If you have a large woodlot, try to get ash seedlings established with about 50 percent shade cover. They can live for a bit under that shade but won't take off too quickly, buying some time. Don't let a logger destroy all the seedling and sapling ash if you have your ash harvested with their equipment. Once the mature trees are gone your seed source is gone. Lose all those genetics on a large scale the species bottlenecks, making it more vulnerable to the next problem. Hopefully before that generation of ash matures fully some progress will be made. That's about as optimistic as I can get about it. The lingering fear of some that doesn't get talked about much is if it switches hosts to other hardwoods. It has been confirmed on white fringe tree in the mid-Atlantic, which is a different species though still in the same family as ash. That was a bit worrying when I read it.
I'm a forester so I've been dealing with this pest which has just recently been confirmed in Vermont, where I live. It was here well before it was confirmed, that's the problem, you don't really notice it until it's bad. It's confirmed to be about 10 miles from my own land which doesn't have a lot of ash but does have some nice ones. I plan to treat about 6 of the nicest ones on my little 10 acre woodlot. It's not practical to treat many of them. They will require periodic treatment for as long as there are no biological controls for the EAB. Some of the chemicals are readily available, some only to licensed persons. Some are more effective than others. For the initial treatment this year I'll likely use a more affordable option but as it moves in, in the future, with a higher load of the pests, I'll use more potent options which will require less frequent treatment and are more effective. There's more or less a bell curve to the population when it hits. It starts small, builds up to massive numbers, and declines when the mature ash are largely depleted. But it persists in low levels and can come back when the next generation of ash matures.
There's ongoing research with parasitoids for control that is promising but it'll be years at best before that takes off well enough to control the EAB. If you have a large woodlot, try to get ash seedlings established with about 50 percent shade cover. They can live for a bit under that shade but won't take off too quickly, buying some time. Don't let a logger destroy all the seedling and sapling ash if you have your ash harvested with their equipment. Once the mature trees are gone your seed source is gone. Lose all those genetics on a large scale the species bottlenecks, making it more vulnerable to the next problem. Hopefully before that generation of ash matures fully some progress will be made. That's about as optimistic as I can get about it. The lingering fear of some that doesn't get talked about much is if it switches hosts to other hardwoods. It has been confirmed on white fringe tree in the mid-Atlantic, which is a different species though still in the same family as ash. That was a bit worrying when I read it.
It’s reported to survive in Ligustrum too, which is terribly invasive in the South, so maybe there will be a silver lining to it.
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