Emerald ash borer recovery

jCarroll · Jun 3, 2014

Hundreds of our ash trees are dying because of this insect. Some of the trees that I thought last fall were completely gone have a few branches with leaves, and some have "suckers" sprouting from the base.
Will these suckers ever produce real trees, or do I just cut everything at ground level and drag it away with my tractor?

Thanks, China ...............

Bret4207 · Jun 3, 2014

If you trim all but one sucker off you'll eventually get a tree. I believe in Great Britain Ash and similar tree's are, or were, deliberately cut and the suckers encouraged to grow for stove wood. IIRC it was called "coppicing".

randy hall · Jun 3, 2014

the suckers are the trees last gasp for life. they will die.

Jahaze · Jun 3, 2014

The suckers are called epicormic shoots, as someone else said, it"s a last ditch attempt from the tree together some energy, the shoots come out below the damage from the borers.

The trees will not recover. They will loose their leaves, and will be dead within a year. After they die, you have about one year before they tip over from the base. Make sure you either get them down before then, or have nothing in their way when they fall. Our crews are taking them down all over the state before the hit our transmission lines. Pisses me off to see them all dying, but there is little that can be done at this point.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 3, 2014

Those suckers are an indication of damage . We had a couple foresters and I also spoke to some loggers about them and all agree they will be dead in a years. We cut all the saw logs we could and the rest is firewood. Our hemlock are also dying so I sent them for logs and pulp . Horrible to think about what might be next . The woods did need a little thinning but was earlier than wanted.

Dave H (MI) · Jun 3, 2014

Actually, the suckers coming up from the dead roots form a low thicket of understory saplings. They definitely grow into trees but...bad news...somewhere around 3" caliper they become a target of reinfestation and that is all she wrote. Pretty much hopeless. The floor of my woodlot is a thicket of ash suckers.

JDemaris · Jun 3, 2014

It works both ways. Asia has many problems with invasive species that came to them from the USA.
Western corn rootworm, North American bullfrog, Eastern gray squirrel, Leidy’s comb jelly, Largemouth bass, Bonamia osteae, Pinewood nematode, Rosy wolfsnail, devil’s beggartick, red swamp crayfish, etc. Hey - maybe the Internet also.

Asian Ash Borer has certainly made a mess though in northern Michigan. Haven't seen it here yet in central NY.

Bret4207 · Jun 4, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:38:44 06/03/14) It works both ways. Asia has many problems with invasive species that came to them from the USA.
Western corn rootworm, North American bullfrog, Eastern gray squirrel, Leidy’s comb jelly, Largemouth bass, Bonamia osteae, Pinewood nematode, Rosy wolfsnail, devil’s beggartick, red swamp crayfish, etc. Hey - maybe the Internet also.

Asian Ash Borer has certainly made a mess though in northern Michigan. Haven't seen it here yet in central NY.

I notice a lot of our Ash were dying a couple years back and mentioned it to a guy that was hanging those traps in my area. He said we didn't have the Emerald Ash Borers here in my area. I asked him why the Ash were dying and he said, "Oh, it's another type of borer doing that.", like all was well as long as it wasn't the EMERALD one! The trees are still dying but that apparently wasn't the important thing to them.

Geo-TH,In · Jun 4, 2014

About 3 years ago I saw 3 trees dying. Then the bark
fell off. You could tell critters eat between the
bark and tree. Had made holes in tree and layed a
eggs.

Not sure what kind of borer it was, but trees died.

ohiojim · Jun 4, 2014

like was said before, if it's shooting out suckers it's on it's way out, make use of them now

Ellis Kinney · Jun 4, 2014

I spent about $300.00 to treat about 10 or 15 ash trees. They seem to be doing ok so far. I bought capsules that had a plastic case around them. I drilled into the bark and inserted the plastic case with a punch. All the rest of my trees are dying. Ellis

mkirsch · Jun 4, 2014

I notice a lot of our Ash were dying a couple years back and mentioned it to a guy that was hanging those traps in my area. He said we didn't have the Emerald Ash Borers here in my area. I asked him why the Ash were dying and he said, "Oh, it's another type of borer doing that.", like all was well as long as it wasn't the EMERALD one! The trees are still dying but that apparently wasn't the important thing to them.

Well, there's no sense in getting excited about it because there's nothing you can do about it once infested.

What I want to know is, if this bug took out all the ash trees overseas how did it survive to come over here and infest the USA?

Emerald ash borer recovery

jCarroll

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Bret4207

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randy hall

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Jahaze

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Anonymous-0

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Dave H (MI)

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JDemaris

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Bret4207

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Geo-TH,In

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ohiojim

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Ellis Kinney

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mkirsch

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