The Ash Borer is here in PA

[golfandwoodnut]

I am noticing the sawdust in my Ash HH wood pile today. I can see little larve inside the holes and they are only in the Ash pieces. I can tell one of my Ash trees near the house must be infected, the leaves did not come in full this year, so I guess the deadly process is starting. I happened to be walking in the woods today and noticed I may have the largest Ash tree on the planet. It actually has 4 or 5 trunks coming from the same tree and each trunk is easily 3 to 4 feet in diameter. I will post some pics when I get a chance. It will be a shame to see these trees die. I already have more dead wood than I need.

 

[rdust]

That sucks, get the saws ready! It's been non stop here for a while now. I think I have about 8 cords of ash right now and I'll be cutting a bunch more this fall/winter. When you drive around here it's really sad to see all the woods littered with standing dead ash and elm tree's.

 

[Nixon]

I am noticing the sawdust in my Ash HH wood pile today. I can see little larve inside the holes and they are only in the Ash pieces. I can tell one of my Ash trees near the house must be infected, the leaves did not come in full this year, so I guess the deadly process is starting. I happened to be walking in the woods today and noticed I may have the largest Ash tree on the planet. It actually has 4 or 5 trunks coming from the same tree and each trunk is easily 3 to 4 feet in diameter. I will post some pics when I get a chance. It will be a shame to see these trees die. I already have more dead wood than I need.

Well , just north of You in Butler county ,it's horrible . There are stands of dead Ash .

 

[Wood Duck]

I think they are here in Centre County (right in the middle of PA). Lots of White Ash here look sickly. Not too many are completely dead yet, but I don't think it will be long.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Thank God they only target Ash trees, I did not know they also got elm, I do see my neighbors elm tree dying as well. It is amazing a little bug can cause so much damage.

 

[Wood Duck]

Elm are dying from a separate problem - there is the old Dutch Elm Disease and a new problem in PA called Elms-yellows. Dutch Elm Disease has been here a while, Elms-yellows is newer, and has become a big problem only in the past couple of years here in Centre County. I know Penn State campus has lost lots of big elms recently, and there are dead ones all over State College and surrounding areas. I think Emerald Ash borer attacks only ash trees.

 

[oldspark]

I was surprised to see parts of the country still haveing live elm trees as we lost all or ours 30 years ago or so.

 

[rdust]

Thank God they only target Ash trees, I did not know they also got elm, I do see my neighbors elm tree dying as well. It is amazing a little bug can cause so much damage.

Sorry, I should have been more clear, the elm are dead from the dutch elm disease. Still a lot standing around here from that.

I just hope the ash borer doesn't jump to something else once they consume all the ash. I'm sure someone somewhere is testing that!

 

[firefighterjake]

I was surprised to see parts of the country still haveing live elm trees as we lost all or ours 30 years ago or so.

They're still here in Maine . . . but many of the larger ones are dying off (the largest one on my property is in the process of dying this year) . . . and the young ones only grow so large before they too succomb to the disease.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I just returned from a bike ride and during the whole route I was simply amazed at all the dead and dying trees. Yes, mostly ash but some elm also. We've cut some elm almost every year on our place. They usually don't get very big before they die but when our ash started dying it really made me sick. It is terrible but we got some lumber and a lot of firewood. There is still lots to cut too.

 

[Wood Duck]

There are still lots of American elms here, including some pretty large ones, but many are now dying. Dutch Elm disease got a lot, and still kills some, I guess, but most of the recent deaths are from the new elms-yellow disease, i think. The people at Penn State think elms-yellow isn't going to be a total disaster as they orignially feared. The number of elms dying this year is only a few percent of the number that died last year.

 

[n3pro]

News from today. "total number of counties where it's been discovered to 17"

http://www.witf.org/news/regional-a...-borer-surfaces-in-two-more-midstate-counties

 

[Uper]

If it hasn't hit the news yet, PA will be quarantining 43 counties for EAB. That just means it has been found in those counties not that they are all saturated with it. Moving naturally the insect won't spread real fast. It's the artificial movement (firewood, nursery stock, pallet stock, etc.) that causes it to pop up all over the country. Tennessee has it now near Knoxville which is frighteningly close to the Smoky's. All is not lost though. There are biological control agents (wasps) being reared in the USDA facility in Brighton, MI. They may help slow EAB in areas where the wasp population can be established. The risk is also pretty low for the wasps becoming a problem themselves. Stay tuned.

 

[oldspark]

Talked to the DNR last weekend and he said it was found in Iowa last spring, I guess people do not learn very fast and keep hauling firewood around the country.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

And even if anyone doesn't haul firewood around the country, the EAB will still show up in your area if you have ash trees. They tried the quarantine here in Michigan and it made no difference.

 

[oldspark]

And even if anyone doesn't haul firewood around the country, the EAB will still show up in your area if you have ash trees. They tried the quarantine here in Michigan and it made no difference.

Well the bug can fly a half mile and it can be in nursey stock so quarantine should slow it way down, my guess people do not care, you ever see some of the folks who camp, tell me they care about any thing other then them selves.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good point Oldspark.

You can slow the progression but not stop it.

 

[Uper]

One of the problems with the Michigan situation is that they found it quite a while after it had become established (some estimate up to 15 years!). These newer findings are earlier in the game for those areas. Plus, we have years of trying to fight it with some wins and many losses. That gives these areas of small pockets a chance to contain it to some degree. Certainly the cat is out of the bag, but as far as slowing it down while people continue to research ways to live with it and not lose our entire ash population there is still a small window of opportunity.

The Iowa find is way up in the NE corner along the Mississippi with the Wisconsin findings right across the river. No surprise there. People camp all along in the islands and in houseboats in the area and have likely brought along some firewood. Being that Iowa doesn't have large amounts of ash you would think that movement west would be very slow. However, the movement of infested wood can change that.

 

[oldspark]

One of the problems with the Michigan situation is that they found it quite a while after it had become established (some estimate up to 15 years!). These newer findings are earlier in the game for those areas. Plus, we have years of trying to fight it with some wins and many losses. That gives these areas of small pockets a chance to contain it to some degree. Certainly the cat is out of the bag, but as far as slowing it down while people continue to research ways to live with it and not lose our entire ash population there is still a small window of opportunity.

The Iowa find is way up in the NE corner along the Mississippi with the Wisconsin findings right across the river. No surprise there. People camp all along in the islands and in houseboats in the area and have likely brought along some firewood. Being that Iowa doesn't have large amounts of ash you would think that movement west would be very slow. However, the movement of infested wood can change that.

Not sure why you think Iowa does not have a lot of ash trees, the guess is 30 million trees.

 

[Uper]

I think my point about Iowa's ash population is that it has pockets of higher populations but is fairly inconsistent across the state. That should make it hard for the EAB to expand naturally. I'll add a map, but if it is too small to read, the legend at the bottom shows the colors representing the populations of ash. The colors to the bottom of the legend represent higher populations.

 

[oldspark]

Uper, I sure hope so and I see your point it should move accross Iowa slow.

 

[woodsmaster]

I am noticing the sawdust in my Ash HH wood pile today. I can see little larve inside the holes and they are only in the Ash pieces. I can tell one of my Ash trees near the house must be infected, the leaves did not come in full this year, so I guess the deadly process is starting. I happened to be walking in the woods today and noticed I may have the largest Ash tree on the planet. It actually has 4 or 5 trunks coming from the same tree and each trunk is easily 3 to 4 feet in diameter. I will post some pics when I get a chance. It will be a shame to see these trees die. I already have more dead wood than I need.

You may as well call a logger and sell all you can. there will still be plenty left for fire wood. If you wait to long the loggers wont buy them.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

woodmaster the problem is wood prices are back to 1970s levels now and I think they would make a real mess of my woods. I will try to hold off as long as I can, or hopefully do a selective cut from time to time.

 

[loon]

this is not too far from my house :-S


http://news.gc.ca/web/article-eng.do?m=/index&nid=551139

 

[Tony H]

We had the elm disease go thru quite a few years ago but it did miss some I have 2 big ones left . The Ash is much more current here I went to a ball game and the 2 blocks from the parking lot to the diamond there were about 6/8 ash trees all infected. Very sad to see