Well, this morning the city of Delaware did their deed and chopped down the dead ash tree near my home.
The tree had been declining in recent years and last year the city had scraped away some of the bark to expose the larvae trails of the emerald green ash borer. I’m glad the tree is gone as any larvae living there could infect all the other trees on the street, if they haven’t already.
I’ve heard that researchers are working on an insecticide, and some are being recommended now, but they don’t seem to offer a real effective solution. It would seem that any insecticide would need to be systemic to allow the roots to uptake the insecticide. Supposedly, the emerald ash borer prefers to lay her eggs in the tender shoots toward the top of the tree, making a spray insecticide more difficult to do on these large trees.
The trees along my street belong to the city, so it’s not the homeowner’s responsibility to treat them. It will be interesting to see what variety of tree the city plants as a replacement.
Read my two previous posts with photos of the larvae trails and “D” hole, as well as informational links for the Emerald Ash Borer.
Little green borer get off my ash
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Hopefully they won’t give you sweet gum trees like they do here in Cleveland. lol It’s sad when an old tree has to come down though.
I thought sweet gums were supposed to have such pretty fall color. Are they the ones with the balls that drop all over the place?
Our trees are only 14 yrs old so they’re not the 60 ft trees yet, but they are getting some size to them and make the street pretty. I suppose eventually we’ll lose all of them.
If only the people wouldn’t have transported firewood from Michigan and if the ships hadn’t transported them from China to infect MI in the first place!