You guys with bad EAB...

[zogger]

Just wondering..what species seems to be taking the ash trees place now?

 

[XSKIER]

With all of my ash trees gone, the oaks, cedars, and choke cherries seem to be doing well.

 

[dingeryote]

Sadly, the Sassafrass and silver Maple is going nuts around here, coming up where the ash canopy shaded previously.

The other thing taking off is Sumac. It's been NUTS in the last 5 years.

 

[mr.finn]

Here is a good article on the EAB I just read. Very sad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/s...ter-emerald-ash-borers-destroy-them.html?_r=1

 

[spike60]

It's all very mixed around here, so it's going to be whatever was growing nearby. Oak, maple, hickory, pine, hemlock, etc.

 

[stumpy75]

As said, mostly what is nearby is taking over. However, in some of the Metroparks around here, they have tried an experimental planting of American Elm and American Chestnut(both the resistant type) in the holes left by the ashes. Too early to tell how that's working...

 

[1project2many]

Any guesses about what EAB will take to eating after the A is gone?

 

[zogger]

Any guesses about what EAB will take to eating after the A is gone?

Supposedly just ash. Many different types of ash, but just that, from what I have read.

http://iowa.sierraclub.org/FAQEAB3-09.pdf

http://www.emeraldashborer.info/faq.cfm#q3

I guess the borer will thin out a lot once most of the ash is gone, but new saplings will come up, which will support remnant populations of the bug.. Unless they come up with some amazingly reliable and effective and cheap biological control..that's it for any big ash trees, probably within one human generation. Individual trees can be treated with insecticide every two years to save them. This isn't going to happen with any large scale save the forest idea.

Of course if they do start munching other species..it will suck.

 

[1project2many]

My worry is that we haven't had a chance to find out. In their natural habitat there's more food than bug, and predators keep the population down. We're heading toward more bug than food and minimal predators.

 

[zogger]

My worry is that we haven't had a chance to find out. In their natural habitat there's more food than bug, and predators keep the population down. We're heading toward more bug than food and minimal predators.

Yep, something to think about. They could evolve to eat any number of different species, who knows.