New Approaches In Beetle Battle

Treating individual trees with insecticides is expensive and the results vary. And when officials declare a tree quarantine zone, all ash trees come down—treated or not. If proven effective, new treatments could work wonders across the Midwest and affected parts of Canada.

Michigan State University researchers say they’ve found a pesticide called EB that, when applied to a tree, kills all emerald ash borer adults and 99.7 percent of its larvae. If shown practical to apply, the new treatment could help save millions of ash trees across the U.S. and Canada.

Another Promising Result

Not only that, but the same team of researchers has found an apparently native wasp laying its eggs in ash borer larvae in Genesee County.

It might be a local fluke, or it could be the natural enemy that could control this pest, which spread across Michigan like wildfire after its 2002 landing in Detroit in packing materials.

Now, it looks like experts could soon have new tools to fight the ash emerald borer.

New Battle Fronts

Also in March, the city of Jackson, Mich. said it will lose about 300 ash trees by mid-April.

The removal process, which started in December, is a little more than half-way finished with the 300 trees removal.

More than 1,500 ash trees will have to be removed eventually because of the exotic beetle.

“The spread of the emerald ash borer across the state has happened rather quickly,” said Tom Steiger, superintendent of cemeteries and forestry for the city of Jackson. “It’s almost inevitable.”

Meanwhile, in Ontario, Canada, more than $25 million has been spent to stop the EAB from wiping out the province’s ash trees, but the infestation has spread anyway.

The pest is moving eastward in Lambton County and is expected to travel about 10 kilometers a year, says a representative from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Sources: The Bay City (Mich.) Times, The Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot, The Sarnia (Ont.) Observer, The Quad-City (Ill.) Times