Information on Emerald Ash Borer – Omaha, Nebraska

Emerald Ash Borer

Emerald ash borer (EAB) has been confirmed in Nebraska on June 6th, it most likely will eventually kill a large portion of the state’s 44 million ash trees. Emerald ash borer has already wiped out hundreds of millions of trees throughout the U.S. It was first discovered in Michigan, and has spread its way throughout many states. They expect damages to be over 900million. People in Nebraska should start planning on removing ash trees and start replacement planting ahead of time.

Emerald ash borer locations

Map from USDA

Emerald ash borer locations so far are in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Just recently added to the list are Texas (may 6th 2016), Nebraska (june 6th 2016), and Delaware (aug. 23rd 2016).

When emerald ash borer infestations begin in an area it can take years for the first trees to die and in these cases EAB is very difficult to detect. The first symptoms to occur are cracks in the bark where the individual EAB have been feeding. As EAB populations build, woodpeckers learn to feed on them. When trees begin to decline from EAB buildup, canopy thinning and epicormic sprouts (water sprouts) become more apparent. D-shaped holes are small and hard to detect when there are few, but a reliable sign as populations build.

Should I Inject my trees for Emerald Ash Borer?

Treatments should not be done untill there has been a sighting withing 10miles from your trees, otherwise you will be wasting money. I got a lot of my information from the Emerald Ash Borer website itself. Once an EAB sighting is within 10miles and you want to try to save your ash trees, you will need to do continuous injections thus keeping the medicine in the tree so that the ash borers don’t infest it. EAB larva feed off the inner bark which is what transports food and essential nutrients. So it is important to inject the EAB chemicals into the inner bark before the larva gets in it. They say once the tree is has lost half of its foilage from EAB there is no chances of saving the tree. Saving your tree from EAB could obviously end up costing a lot of money, it is your decision on if you want to try to save your ash tree or begin the replacement. It is sad because ash trees are said to make up about 7.4 percent of all community trees.