Sucessful DIY ash treatment for Emerald Ash Borer.

[Brian26]

I have had pretty good success on keeping 2 ash trees alive on my property using Dominion 2L insecticide. Its available on amazon for $20. 2 trees cost me about $10 to treat a year. The typical treatment is doing a soil drench where you mix the insecticide with water and pour it around the base of the tree. It then gets absorbed through the roots and up into the tree. A few years ago I read about a university test using Pentra Bark mixed with the Dominion and sprayed directly on the first 6 feet of the tree trunk. The pentra bark is a product that penetrates through the bark of the tree to the vascular system of the tree. The insecticide then quickly goes up through the tree.

My uncle planted these 2 green ash when he bought the house in 1958. We love them on our property and hopefully can keep them going.

First picture is google street view 2011 before EAB was present.

2nd pictures in current one. Though there are a few dead branches the top canopy is still healthy and it might have a chance. . Not sure how much longer it will live but I am doing my best to keep it going. Just about every ash tree around here is completely dead. Notice the dead ash tree at my neighbors in the background.

 

[Ashful]

Good job. I’ve been doing the basal trunk spray myself, also with success. To elaborate a little, for others, these are the basic options I researched:

1. Yearly root soak with Imidicloprid, as you describe above. Requires a tree with a healthy vascular system, in other words not already compromised by EAB, to be very effective. One $70 bottle will last you ten years, unless you’re treating a forest… but I’m averse to pouring chemical into the ground anywhere near a well.

2. Yearly basal trunk spray with Dinotefuran. Brand names are Safari 20SG ($19 / ft. DBH) or Zylam ($27 / ft. DBH), and both products do the same thing with the same limitations. Zylam is easier to mix (liquid vs. solid), but is also more expensive. Time it in the spring, when tree up-take is high, and spray when there’s no rain forecast for at least 12 hours. Use with a surfactant, such as the Petra Bark you mention above, for best results.

3. Injection by tree professional = $100 - $400 per tree, every second year, depending on count and size.

DBH = Diameter at Breast Height, the way trees are usually measured, and it’s cumulative… six 12” trees would be 6 ft DBH.

If going with basal trunk spray, these are the two primary options:

Safari: mix at 18 oz. weight (4.5 cups volume) per gallon, and add a cap full (0.5 oz.) of Pentra-Bark surfactant. Spray at a rate of 1 gallon per 6 ft DBH (eg. 1 gallon of mix will do six 12” diameter trees). Max rate 2.7 lb product (2.4 gallons mixed) per acre per year, so you can do almost 15 ft. DBH per acre per year.

Zylam: mix at 16 fl.oz. per gallon, and add 1 – 2 caps full of Pentra-Bark surfactant. Spray at a rate of 1 gallon per 3 ft DBH. Max rate = 79 fl.oz. product (5 gallons mixed) per acre per year, so you can do up to 15 ft. DBH per acre per year.

Around here, we have EAB, but the Spotted Lantern Fly is so much worse that no one is even paying much attention to the EAB. The SLF is completely devastating crops, and no one really seems to know what to do about it. Expect your grocery prices to take a big skip up, as this little bugger spreads. The same treatments for EAB are also applicable for SLF, they just target different trees.