spread of the emerald ash borer

[Stephen Stark]

Just got back fromm the cottage on the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario and I couldn't believe the widespread evidence of the ash borer form Windsor Ontario to the tip of Georgian Bay. Ash is one of our more common trees and I can't help but think how barren the landscape will look if most of these trees are destroyed. I was seeing trees with at least a 36" dia trunk without a single leaf. It makes one think that maybe it might be a good idea to harvest some of the larger ones before they are reduced to junk. How is this insect affecting your area?:mad: Ps Thank you China for the Ash Borer, the long horned beetle, the Asian carp and the snake head fish(Google this freak)

[Neal Clayton]

we have similar issues in the south with the old growth pines, it's somewhat of a catch 22.

a) here the old growth forests, ironically, survived by fire. natural forest fires would wipe out parasites and faster growing competitors allowing the old growth trees that survived the lightning fires to flourish.

b) but we can't have widespread forest fires anymore, it wipes out wildlife and private property.

so what do you do? i don't know that there is a good answer.

[Dave Lehnert]

We have a problem here in Cincinnati. The inspector from the Ohio Department of Agriculture said the Feds will jack you up good transporting firewood from state to state. I saw a map of the spreading of the Emerald Ash Borer. It is spreading right along the major highways from people transporting wood.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Across the river from Windsor, in the Detroit area, all the ash trees have been dead for a few years now. We had a big one in the front yard, and started getting it treated as soon as we noticed signs, but it still died two years later. The arborist said that they learned that once you saw signs of the insect, it had probably already been there for more than a year and it was too late to save the tree.

[Curt Harms]

Part of the problem with the E A B is there are no natural predators on this continent. I'd read where entomologists had found a couple species of wasps that would target E A B's. Anyone know about that?

[Matt Meiser]

And what are the predators to those wasps?

[Dave Verstraete]

A neighboring city (Wyoming, MI), in its infinite wisdom, planted green ash along a major artery street (44th). We can watch the progression of the borer as it gets to our town. Why they haven't cut those down is beyond me.

[Curt Harms]

And what are the predators to those wasps?

Good question. Reference "The principle of unintended consequences". I'm pretty sure there have been predators introduced to combat imported pests in the past. The trick is to make sure the introduced predator has very targeted prey---and hope you're right.

[Mike OMelia]

Remember Kudzu? arg!

Anybody seen the damage to lodge pole pines in the Rockies?

[Craig Hemsath]

A neighboring city (Wyoming, MI), in its infinite wisdom, planted green ash along a major artery street (44th). We can watch the progression of the borer as it gets to our town. Why they haven't cut those down is beyond me.
Cities across the country planted ash in the wake of Dutch Elm Disease, now with the EAB maybe they'll have to replant with the new resistant elms.

[Gary Radice]

Just returned today from a trip to upstate Michigan and the ash trees were dying everywhere. Obvious and saddening and maddening viewing it at 55 mph along the roadsides everywhere.

Invasive species of all types are a silent but huge problem.

[ray hampton]

We have a problem here in Cincinnati. The inspector from the Ohio Department of Agriculture said the Feds will jack you up good transporting firewood from state to state. I saw a map of the spreading of the Emerald Ash Borer. It is spreading right along the major highways from people transporting wood.


do the Borer depend on people moving the wood to spread or can the Borer travel to different trees some other way ?

[Jerome Hanby]

And what are the predators to those wasps?
I'm thinking of that Monty Python skit where they keep bringing in new predators to get rid of the predators they brought in to get rid of the pests until they end up with genetically engineered atomic super cats that destroy everything.

Now obviously we don't want to go that route, but if we used just a little radiation on that genetically altered feline DNA...

[ray hampton]

are this what you are talking about

the farmer had too many mice--bought cats
now too many cats-bought bull dogs
too many dogs --bought tigers
too many tigers--bought elephants
too many elephants--bought mice

[Craig Hemsath]

do the Borer depend on people moving the wood to spread or can the Borer travel to different trees some other way ?
The adults can move up to ~12 miles/year, iirc, on their own. But it's the movement of firewood, etc. that are the big culprits. Some guy has an ash dying, cuts it down. Nice, big tree, saves it for firewood. Hauls a load to a campground, has a few logs left over and thinks "I'll just leave it for the next guy"

[Marty Paulus]

Here in Michigan, as stated, it is a huge issue. So much so that the DNR has a firewood inspection station on the north end of the Macinac Bridge. The inspection consists of off loading any firewood that comes from south of the bridge and disposing of it. They are not messing around up there. The wood ban has been in place since 2005. They have a motto of burn it where you get it for camp fire wood.

[Matt Meiser]

Most campgrounds have gone to banning outside firewood too. No one has said anything about my boxes of scrap lumber, so I think its an honest attempt at stopping the movement of firewood rather than a ploy to sell a couple logs for $5-8.

[Michael MacDonald]

is anyone treating their ash trees to kill the borer? I hired a vendor to apply a treatment twice a year... only a few hundred. no idea if it works. better than just sittin' and waitin'.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

is anyone treating their ash trees to kill the borer? I hired a vendor to apply a treatment twice a year... only a few hundred. no idea if it works. better than just sittin' and waitin'.

See my post above.

[Michael MacDonald]

"We had a big one in the front yard, and started getting it treated as soon as we noticed signs, but it still died two years later. The arborist said that they learned that once you saw signs of the insect, it had probably already been there for more than a year and it was too late to save the tree."

it sounds like your arborist implied that if you had preemptively treated it, it might not have succumbed... that is what I am hoping for. guess it is hard to prove though...

[Callan Campbell]

"We had a big one in the front yard, and started getting it treated as soon as we noticed signs, but it still died two years later. The arborist said that they learned that once you saw signs of the insect, it had probably already been there for more than a year and it was too late to save the tree."

it sounds like your arborist implied that if you had preemptively treated it, it might not have succumbed... that is what I am hoping for. guess it is hard to prove though...
From what I'm hearing, unless you see the bugs land on the tree, lay their eggs, and then treat the tree right then and there, you're always too late, playing catch-up with the resulting larvae/young and the decay of the tree. :(

[Walt Stevens]

We're having problems in Maryland. I have two big ash trees in the front yard. I'm treating them every Spring with the Bayer product (Advanced Tree and Shrub). So far so good. There is a moratorium on moving firewood between counties, and the state forest service has been hanging traps in trees. I'm surprised there isn't a chemical (pheromone) to attract the females to the traps, but I haven't heard of anything.

[Nathan Allen]

Just from the Japanese Emerald Beatle my ash tree already takes a beating, nevermind the treatments, those beatles are brutal on the cover. It is only a matter of time before the EABs show up to finish the job.

[Kevin Groenke]

The EAB was identified in MN last summer. they have quarantined the areas affected, but currently there is little hope to control it's spread. Something like 70% on MN's urban trees are Ash and we allegedly have the largest concentration of Ash in the nation, so this will change the nature of the landscape just like Dutch Elm did 30 years ago.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/issues/eab/
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/eab/index.html

The CFDA has a traveling show "Rising from the Ashes" focusing on the spread of EAB, use of Ash and promoting handcrafted furniture from small makers.
http://www.risingfromashes.org/

The upside of all of this is that once the tree is dead and the lumber dried the risk of EAB is gone, so Ash lumber should be cheap and be widely available. Unfortunately millions of bdft of the stuff is being burned annually because the fellers are to lazy to mill it or bureaucracies are making it too difficult to transport it to the mills.

Grr.

I've got 1 in the front yard and 2 on the boulevard and I''m just waiting for them to start dying back.

-kg

[Steve Costa]

I live in the San Juan Mtns in So West Colorado. Most of the tree damage we see in this part of the state is from pine beetles. Of course to further the ecological balance a 5 yr. study is in progress so you can't cut any dead pine with a diameter greater than 15" for firewood unless it is on your property.
I have also driven I-70 west from Denver. Tree loss there is both from the beetle and the weekly migrations of the front range folks to the wilderness. No one has come up with a solution to either problem.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

it sounds like your arborist implied that if you had preemptively treated it, it might not have succumbed... that is what I am hoping for. guess it is hard to prove though...

That's what we thought we were doing, but it was still to late. Hopefully you have better luck.