EAB in Boulder Co.

[TaoTreeClimber]

http://www.bouldercounty.org/property/forest/pages/eab.aspx

Well the little bastards got here a lot quicker than I expected. I have been watching EAB since it first became a serious problem in the mid-west so I am familiar with it. I was curious as to how all you guys out east have capitalized on this pest. I am planning on investing in an ARBORjet system. What are the pros and cons of this unit?

 

[ATH]

Costly initial investment. A little fragile. I hate paying 0.50 per plug. Otherwise works very well. I have a QuickJet and a Tree IV. The QuickJet is worthless.

Rainbow has their own plugless system. If I were buying a new one today, I'd look hard at both before deciding which to buy. (the one similar to the Tree IV).

I let everybody know it is a long costly road to decide to treat. I don't want anybody to feel "taken" when I am still charging them for treatments 8 years from now. I work with clients to help them decide which trees are worth treating, and which are not good trees to start with and/or won't be missed if they die. You HAVE to treat early. If you see 25-30% of the canopy has died back the likelihood of success just starts to drop quickly.

I also do soil treatments as a lower cost option with imidacloprid and it works...but shallower dry soil may behave differently. I use a soil injection needle with a flow totalizer and it goes really quick. MUCH quicker than Tree-Age. I actually make more per hour doing soil treatments and the clients pay less...it does work, just not as well. I haven't seen anything that makes me think trunk injection of imidacloprid is a good option...but I know others think it is. Soil treatment is just as effective. Either way, it is not as effective as Tree-Age. Not "less effective" as in the entire trees are dying, but more dieback.

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

Thanks for the input. One reason I am looking at the Aborjet is because I have a dealer less than a half mile from home. There is only one other registered applicator in my area and I know the guy. He isnt much of an arborist, but his dad has a tree company that I do some contract climbing for. Im not really worried about competition there. My main objective is to try to get enough of a PHC program going this summer to justify my girlfriend/partner quitting her full time job and start doing tree care full time. She is eager to learn to climb and act as my groundie but we both agree she would be more of an asset in the office and on PHC type stuff.

 

[ATH]

I am a small operation as well. I have gone back and forth on having hired help do PHC stuff. On one hand, once I have sold the work, it seems easy to send them out. On the other there are times when those visits for treatment yield more work because I am out there. Until I am able to hire another arborist, I think I will continue to do the treatments...but maybe that is just me being a control freak.

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

We will see how things pan out this spring. I just want to be as diverse as we can be. I have froze and starved for to many winters so hopefully this is the last.