Emerald Ash Borer

[X-Rated]

All joking aside, these beasts are horrible. If you live in the south or anywhere far from areas hit by these bastards AND you have an ash tree, contact your extension agent (a.k.a. Mr. Kimball) or some agriculture authority in your area to find if there are ways to protect your ash tree(s) from these massive menaces.

In the Chicago burbs, the streets are bare from where they had ash trees and now they are all removed. It is really noticeable. They will have killed your tree before you even know there is a situation. You won't see them. You just know a few years later that you have a dead or dying tree.

14024

[K7SGJ]

I don't know where else there are, but northern AZ has been hit hard with the bark beetle. They have destroyed a lot of the pine trees and certain areas have had to be burned to try to control them. It's amazing how destructive some of these little bastids can be.

[W2NAP]

got the ash bug here in Indiana. nasty buggers

[KC2UGV]

Yeah, we actually have the DEC inspecting the street trees regularly here for them... And, the remove/burn the tree on site when it's found. If anything, it's good business for the tree folk.

[VE7DCW]

We have the pine beetle in the parts of British Columbia that have pine trees,nasty little bugs that do a lot of damage! .......we hardly have any pine trees here on Vancouver Island, pretty well all firs,cedars,spruce and the odd hemlock trees which are fairly hearty.......... :yes:

[WØTKX]

I've fought in the front lines against the pine beetle a few years ago. Effectively as a well paying short term gig, when the nymphs become adults and bore out of the trees. You can freaking hear them munching out. Scary.

The ash borer has showed up here on the front range, we are pulling up ash trees and destroying them at work.

[koØm]

got the ash bug here in Indiana. nasty buggers


We also have them next door here, it's a big crisis, the State of Ohio and the counties are inspecting, marking and cutting down trees left and right.

There are also billboards advising against moving Firewood because so many Elm tress are lying around, it looks like free wood but the problem is by relocating the downed wood, you could be moving the beetles to a different area.

Leave it to Ohio, there was a minor scandal when one of the relatives of one of the Tree Inspection Service guys was following behind him cutting down trees and shredding them up; some of the trees he cut were questionable and, he was selling the wood chips.

.

[n2ize]

We used to have a huge and very beautiful ash tree in our back yard. It was a massive tree. It had an enormous main trunk witth three large trunks branching off in 3 different directions. Talk about shade, in summer it was dark in our yard as the tree was both massive and dense and beautiful. It was clearly a very old tree that predated not just our house but any of the older homes around here (many of which date way back). It seemed sttrong and healthy. Then suddenly in the early autumn of 1989 it lost its leaves and went dormant early. The next spring it was DEAD... no buds, no leaves, no nothing. Towards the end of the summer it started becoming britttle and dropping branches even in moderate winds. By fall we had a tree man remove it. He practically burned out his saws cutting that monster down. I doubt it was the Emerald Ash Borer back then. I was told that it was due to another disease that was affecting ash trees in those days.

[n2ize]

All joking aside, these beasts are horrible. If you live in the south or anywhere far from areas hit by these bastards AND you have an ash tree, contact your extension agent (a.k.a. Mr. Kimball) or some agriculture authority in your area to find if there are ways to protect your ash tree(s) from these massive menaces.

In the Chicago burbs, the streets are bare from where they had ash trees and now they are all removed. It is really noticeable. They will have killed your tree before you even know there is a situation. You won't see them. You just know a few years later that you have a dead or dying tree.

14024

Most likely came here via shipping from overseas.

[ka8ncr]

Most likely came here via shipping from overseas.

It came into KDTW from China on pallets made from wood that had not even been de-barked. Just a few years shy of twenty years ago, it flew in SE Michigan and there simply are no more ash trees here. The good news is that eventually, it will be unable to find enough ash trees to sustain any reproduction and it will go away on its own.

I have seen people try to treat trees with neonicotids/amicloprid, but that is extremely expensive for the amount needed and I haven't seen much success.

[WØTKX]

Trunk spraying with Sevin is effective, but has to be timed right. Other chemicals fed into the root system work earlier in the season, but won't stop the spread from infected trees. Catching 'em and spraying the trunks during the flight times WITH the root treatment on all trees, infected or not is expensive, but effective. This shit is scary.

Years ago, my dad (retired entomologist/agronomist) saved a bunch of elms on the property in the late 60's. We were pumping chemicals into the root and trunks for a few years. All the other elms died in the area, the bugs flew off... and the problem went away. The trees survived and they are freaking HUGE now. Some big oaks there too.

[K0RGR]

When I moved into this house, there was a huge Elm tree on the west side, and two 100 foot cottonwoods on the far end of the lot. I had visions of rhombics and monster loops. The elm died from Dutch Elm disease and cost plenty to take down. The two cottonwoods were only 50 feet from a major power trunk line, so the power company took them down, thankfully for free (we had been quoted a price of $8,000 to do it). Now, we have an ash tree left, and the ash borer has been detected about a half mile from here, so I suspect that one isn't long for this world. To be honest, the tree is a pain in the neck, and it's just in the wrong place for antennas, so I won't cry if it dies.

[n2ize]

When I moved into this house, there was a huge Elm tree on the west side, and two 100 foot cottonwoods on the far end of the lot. I had visions of rhombics and monster loops. The elm died from Dutch Elm disease and cost plenty to take down. The two cottonwoods were only 50 feet from a major power trunk line, so the power company took them down, thankfully for free (we had been quoted a price of $8,000 to do it). Now, we have an ash tree left, and the ash borer has been detected about a half mile from here, so I suspect that one isn't long for this world. To be honest, the tree is a pain in the neck, and it's just in the wrong place for antennas, so I won't cry if it dies.

We had a tall elm directly in front of our house. It was cut down way back in the 1960's due to Dutch Elm disease. The tree was half on city property and half on our property.The local power company (Con Edison) paid for the removal since the tree was in a position where it would take down some wires if it were to have fallen. Just a couple years ago we had a beautiful and rather huge maple that was just to the left of the front of our house. In this case the entire tree was on our property and it was dying from some disease that affects maples. Once again the local power company (Con Edison) came to the rescue. They footed the bill for the entire removal of the tree. Again the tree was in a precarious position such that if it were to fall towards the street it would probably rip down a lot of wires and snap a few poles. Guess the power company felt it wwas a cost effective measure to pay for the tree removal rather than have to replace a section of their distribution system. And it was a good move coonsidering that hurricane Sandy hit a few months later.

Only problem is every time a large tree is cut I lose a valuable antenna support structure. :(