Is Ash the next Chestnut?

[Chris Barton]

An article worth reading:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060530/ap_on_sc/ash_borer_firewood;_ylt=AtBY4i6hL0LEpz_bxOOeykSs0N UE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-

[Curt Harms]

There was an article about the ash borer problem in the local paper. According to the article, there was a load of firewood stopped enroute from Michigan to Pennsylvania. Yup, it was infested. Why would anyone haul firewood from Michigan to Pennsylvania? Don't know, there's quite a bit of firewood in PA. Anyway, knowing there's a problem and letting others know seems like a good first step. I guess the next step is to find a critter that regards ash borers as the New Caviar.;)

Curt

[John Hart]

Interesting article. I had some Ash in the garage over the winter. When I was clearing everything out this Spring I noticed about 70,000 little tiny piles of wood dust in between each piece of Ash. 70,000 little tiny holes bored into the wood and bark. None of any of the other wood was affected. They're dead now.;)

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have heard of the problem to. I had some Ash, Honey Locust and Elm stored. I had the little piles of sawdust but in was the honey locust that had the little piles of sawdust.

[John Timberlake]

Here in the Cleveland area, we don't have them yet. Don't know if we will really be able to stop them, just slow them down. I have 4 acres of large trees and about 15% are ash. They seem to stary dying off at about 60 years old. John's dust was probably from powder post beetles or something similar. If you cut a tree and kiln dry it, you should be ok.

[Wes Bischel]

Yeah, we've been watching this with a bit of dread. We have two HUGE ash trees out front on the parkway, plus a few others across the street. They are getting close to 80 years old. It's going to cost a mint to take them down - and if they have to come down, I would want to have them sawn up, but I'm not sure what PA will allow when and if we get the borers.:(

Wes

[Dick Strauss]

I used to live in Southern CA where we were always doing battle with the Mediterranean Fruit Flies. Those little suckers caused BILLIONS of dollars in damages. We had weekly aerial spraying for a while there.

Now, it seems like it went from the city streets being covered by chestnut trees, then elm trees, now ash trees. We are infested in this area with the Emerald Ash Borer. The local infestation has spread from Detroit and has now reached Toledo. It covers much of Eastern MI. Every week thousands more trees are taken down to prevent the spread. Our local town is taking down all of the downtown trees (all ash of course!) to stop the spread. By the way, the original source is believed to be an untreated pallet/etc from a Chinese freighter. It may have been a pallet of bandsaws for all we know.

Dev should quit his complaining (in the other forum) about having to wait a few extra days for a shipment from overseas for another big tool. Laws that require inspections and fumigation of certain materials help keep these pests in check and out of our country

PS-Our city log dump won't allow the removal of any material (regardless of species) now that EAB is in the area.

I'll gladly step down from my soapbox now!!!!!!

[Jim Becker]

Most of the 18 trees that came down here recently were ash, but I don't believe they were infested with anything...at least that I detected...but it would be a real shame if those beetles start to hang out around here. There is a LOT of ash growing on our property and in the surrounding area. A lot.

[Doug Shepard]

Michigan has been getting hit pretty hard by this pest. I personally know of 2 relatives and 5 neighbors that have had to have ash trees cut down. Plus you cant do anything with the wood either. It all has to be ground up into chips. Fortunately my yard is maples, pines, and an odd fruit tree or two.

[John Shuk]

Almsot every ash on my property is dead or dying. Small trees as a rule. I've never seen one of those critters around though. Some kind of blight blew through my area a while back I guess.