EAB reaches Wisconsin

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So strange, even eerie not to see any adults around.

I would love to hear from arborists in past infestation areas as to the progression and history of their areas as to what to expect. It seems so odd that it was discovered here over a year ago and then it went dead quiet for about a year after all the hoopla and now it is all over the news I heard. I got a little inside early info.
Remember, they emerge all season long, not one mass emeregence. The adults just start their emergence/flight with the bloom of black locust. That was last week up here, so I suspect about 2-3 weeks ago for you -- that means there are still a lot of boogers to emerge. Not surprising that you aren't seeing adults.

As for progression: maybe a little hard to "track". Trees that I know are infested look good now. Trees that I drive by every day I would have said looked good 4 weeks ago, but they did not even put out leaves this year - but one right next to them did. I guess my point is that it is random for a couple of years. Then, next thing you know you are looking for the few live trees instead of the few dead trees...
 
I thought that was the case. The city forester from Cinci I am in contact with said it is seldom an adult is seen until trees are dead for miles around (none of them has seen an adult). He also said that in a tv report on Fri that I missed they did an interview and adults were flying around at the time of the broadcast. Let me try his name again....Matt Dockman (substitute an i for the o)
 
I'd say the headline involving "EAB is contained" is misleading.


They must have some deep pockets ....$600,000.00 yearly.

Historically ash in the lawn space as they get older/bigger get weaker giving 2 strikes on future translocation. The economy may be another snafu.

What do you think about this Glenn?
 
My thoughts...

Well, I agree with you, TreeVet, "Contained" is misleading. From my days in fire fighting, a contained fire was still wrecking havoc on structure, forest, or prairie, but its scope was now limited, and barring the unexpected, all would be managed.

I think that all communities where the EAB could reach need to accept the inevitable, and begin "pain management" as is offered for terminal cancer patients. I'm not an arborist in any sense, but it seems that the best option is to divert funds from treating, to replacing. Maybe a municipality with ash lined streets could plant other species between them, and when the inevitable happens (in 5-10 years or so for much of Wisconsin), some semi-mature trees will be started, and the clear cutting that happens won't just be replaced with twigs. It is more complex than that, I know.

For areas like parks, and civic structures, it may make sense to treat the ash there, until replacement trees have been well established, so that public amenities, and places are not decimated all at once. A good landscape architect could plan for the eventual removal of all ash trees, but over a period of time.

I think the forests are going to be hit hard here... I have a friend with forests that are in his estimation, 40 to 60 percent ash. The whole character, understory, etc, is going to change. He will, however, not have to decide if he needs to cut live trees for heating two years out. Firewood will abound.

I worry about the character of the ash line streets... Everything from peoples shade plants to airconditioning bills will be affected with the loss of all the ash around here. Much of the ash planted here was a replacement for Elm trees lost to Dutch Elm disease years ago. Here we go again.

I don't think, however, that the devastation will be on the level of Jared Diamond's writing... where civilizations disappeared when the trees went away.

I have come to terms with the idea that life will be a bit different than the first (ahem) years of my life... EAB and thousand cankers disease; Muscle cars; rotary phones; East Germany; etc...The only thing constant is change.

I hope something good can come of this... maybe the municipalities can salvage the ash trees, and make park benches with planks milled from the logs... assembled by boy scouts, senior groups, or unemployed parties who want to still be contributing citizens (they can carve their name in the bench first). Extraordinary logs could be used to make conference tables, etc. (I do some wood working, and have an Alaskan mill for such things)

All in all, there is a time and place, and the EAB's time and and place seems to be here, now. Maybe this is just a reminder about our own fragility. I wish it wasn't so, but I've enjoyed the ash trees, actually, since I was young. (And Hickory, Sycamore, and Black Walnut)

To hopefully invoke the "Fair Use Act" to quote a favorite zen story:

Ikkyu, the Zen master, was very clever even as a boy. His teacher had a precious teacup, a rare antique. Ikkyu happened to break this cup and was greatly perplexed.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher, he held the pieces of the cup behind him. When the master appeared, Ikkyu asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the older man. "Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
Ikkyu, producing the shattered cup, added: "It was time for your cup to die."
 
EAB found in Green Bay

Today, Brett Favre announced he will not be playing for the Vikings (Big news in Green Bay) but another Green beastie has moved into title town to keep everybody company.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/51881957.html

I'm waiting for an announcement to be added for Milwaukee county. There is a park along the river I bike through, and there are several trees that exhibit the dieback / sucker growth that goes with this. One of them has a trap in it.

I'm not going to peel bark on a park tree to confirm. There are some round holes, but not clearly "D" shaped holes where I could access them. Maybe farther up the tree?

What are the other diseases / borers that can cause similiar symptoms?
 
Round holes may be Banded Ash Clearwing Borers and the oval holes may be Redheaded Ash Borers.

Eab is very difficult to detect until a tree has been infested for at least a year because the larvae feed from the top of the tree first. When looking for EAB, it is important to peel off the bark to look fot the larvae and galleries. (but you need permission lst Glenn....good decision). Cinci. forester gave me permission and likely you can get permission also.
 
I am not sure if this has been posted, but thought I would throw this up. It is recent as of July 1, 2009.

fpm_invasives_eab_map1.jpg
 
The latest... 4 counties... one bug. I find it interesting that they have found no bugs in traps in Milwaukee County, but they did find larvae in at least one tree...Where there are larvae, there must be (have been) a beetle. The traps are not fool proof, but just another tool in monitoring. The article mentions plane monitoring too.


http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/56756567.html
 
The latest... 4 counties... one bug. I find it interesting that they have found no bugs in traps in Milwaukee County, but they did find larvae in at least one tree...Where there are larvae, there must be (have been) a beetle. The traps are not fool proof, but just another tool in monitoring. The article mentions plane monitoring too.


http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/56756567.html

It starts real slow Glenn, contrary to all the hoopla in the media from my perspective. Think of maybe popcorn in the microwave as an analogy.

After all the buzz the first year here, the second year was dead quiet, and now in the third year there are some very heavy established infestations with a thousand trees maybe at one of them (Anderson Twp.).
 
It starts real slow Glenn...
After all the buzz the first year here, the second year was dead quiet, and now in the third year there are some very heavy established infestations with a thousand trees maybe at one of them (Anderson Twp.).

That's a VERY typical pattern. At first point of infestation the Ash fights back against the attack, not showing syptoms (White ash show even less symptoms than Green Ash) however when the vascular system is comprimized to a certain extent epicormic growth starts. We (in Michigan) thought it was Ash yellows in '97. This begins the downward spiral. Judging from the pictures "Treevet" posted (I hadn't seen them until today) I'm looking at 3 to 4 years of infestation. I know that sounds crazy, but that's what I've seen here for the last 10. The original infestation in Plymouth Michigan was dated at 2000. Now it's being suggested that it may have been '92 even late 80's as the original date.
 
It doesn't sound much different than what is going on here outside of being a couple of years later.

No mention of injection wound significance.
 
Tree-age will work, so does merit. Prevention is MUCH better than waiting for infestation. Contrary to what you may have heard Ashes may not show visable symptoms for a couple years, until the vascular damage is critical. ANY injection process whether active or passive requires that the conductive system move the product to the upper canopy. EAB hits the 3/4" branches first. If the tree is badly damaged the product will simply not get to where it needs to go. "SLAM" would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. EAB doesn't give a rats a-- if the tree is stressed. Drawing EAB to a tree is like taking a shower w/a raincoat on. When this insects population gets to "X" they will hit ANY Ash. I've seen trees w/EAB exit holes in the buttress roots. I saw a dissected log where one feeding larvae had actually "crossed the path" of another larvae, cutting the larvae in half and continuing on. They feed non-stop (24-7) and don't quit until pupation. As far as injection site wounding, Ash have been slow to compartmentalize injection sites, why I'm not sure. If injecting grafted white Ash NEVER shoot into the graft area, shoot above it. The product will cause significant bark splits, it doesn't move. Also look for "C" shape notching in the leaves, on the edges, adults feed for 7 days b4 egg-laying. We foliar spray Ash w/Safari during that time. Finally from what I've seen in the last 9 years the damage done by EAB far outweighs the damage done by injection sites. It can't be stopped... it will run through the entire range of Ash in the U.S. All we can do is save some high value Ash. Good luck Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Maryland, etc. I've said it b4 I'll say it again "you're going to need it."
 
I do not see any fault in a private homeowner treating ash they love regardless of injection wounds and injections, whether it be EmBen or Immidacloprid IS the state of the art in treatments under when under heavy pressure. I do take issue with cities spending the public's more scarce dollars (in this economy) on treatments. The trees between the small tree lawn are often more stressed because of limited nutrients and quality soil and road salts impeding water uptake and smog and a myriad of other problems that will inhibit translocation.

You mentioned the entertaining image of a larvae eating right through another larvae or was it a pupae? I also read that quite often more than one insect is found in the pupal holes. It was a recent issue of City Trees (Muni Arbs) mag and I cannot find it to save my life. When I do I will post the reference as it also had another startling bit of information.

As you mentioned that the commonly accepted fact is that the phloem feeding begins in the upper canopy. I have thought that since 02. But this article about a town that was hard hit but never could find evidence in the form of larvae began searching and finding many larvae that had begun their feeding in the lower stem. Often they were found much deeper than expected as well. This just shows that the theory of small diameter limb initial attack is not wrong IMO, but that nothing much is consistent with EAB and it seems almost mysterious and eerie to me in some ways.
 
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