Effective method to prevent emerald ash borer

[Pat Kiewicz]

Thanks! It has gotten a bit thick around here (I post from rec.gardens). I hate to keep the cross-post going, but I will leave it in for this post only.

"J teh K" used to be somewhat of a joke here in rec.gardens years ago whenhe first showed up, but the mix has changed and he's got admirers under his current moniker. (His typos were legendary in the old days.)

I have some limitations to my newsreader (it's old but I like it) and I don't follow the alt.forestry group. If you wish to reply to me, I'm willing to take it privately in e-mail at comcast.net (not at someplace.net.net which does not exist).

Never shop at Wal-Mart voluntarily (pretty much have no choice when I visit my mother, sad to say).

We live in an accelerated world. The hits just keep coming, faster than ever. Humans managed to make a few dramatically nasty introductions in old days (walnut blight and gypsy moths, anyone?) but now we have giant containerized ships, flush-through bilges, and jet planes. Massive opportunities for opportunistic organisms!

Yes, I've read about that one. I hope it's appetite for the native pines is limited. So far what I've read said that other areas where Sirex has been introduced has it mainly targets non-native pines. (This threat makes the confirmed breeding of Kirtland's warblers in Wisconsin even more important to the species, I suppose. Eggs not all in one basket, as it were.)

...

Erg, that's not good, if they can be vectored other than by wood movement -- though I suppose that unlike gypsy moth caterpillars looking for a place to pupate, the EAB has no particular inclination to climb into car bodies or camper-trailers.

(It was definitely an EAB, and did not live to make a trip anywhere.)

...

Given enough territory and enough not-quite-dead ash trees it might be just barely possible (if extremely unlikely). I was rather haunted by descriptions of chestnut trees still throwing up shoots, only to have the blight take the new shoots, too.

This beetle is no respector of healthy trees. It mowed down everything around here. Proper pruning, watering, mulching, and fertilizing is not going to help that much when the bark of your neighbors' ash trees is riddled with 'D' shaped exit holes.

I'd hope if you were in an area where the EAB is not known to be already established, you might also consider telling someone about it.

[Don Staples]

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As well you should be.

[Charlie]

This has been an entertaining thread to observe........

"A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction into a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day." -Calvin discovers Usenet

[Treelady]

Tree People UNITE! lol. Having committed hari kari and enjoying the pleasure of being reborn, I, too, would like to vent some spleen: How many of you encounter people who insist they want to reduce mature trees by 50%? On the whole the clients that come our way are fairly decent but, still, too many think it is perfectly fine to cut a fifty foot tree in half. AND, they argue with me and my fellow comrades in arms, by insisting that their experience says it is a perfectly acceptable practice.

[Wolfgang]

A bit counterintuitive, perhaps, but the idea isn't as preposterous as it may appear at first glance. If you cut the trees in half lengthwise (which is to say vertically) in situ, the odds are pretty good (at least in some species) that both halves will survive. Needless to say, this halving will result in having two trees where before there was only one. The net effect is that by reducing trees by 50% you actually DOUBLE the number of trees! Sweet. :)

Wolfgang

[Treelady]

lol