By John Henning, Buyer, Dundee Nursery and Landscaping
Hello again! I hope the change to normal spring temps has not discouraged anyone from continuing to enjoy your yards and gardens.
Something we should remember to do again this spring is to try and control the spread of Emerald Ash Borer. We don’t hear much about it in the news during the winter, so we may tend to forget about it until we have more infestations reported. This borer is not going to go away. Just ask the people in states like Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and others who have lost millions of Ash trees since the discovery of the borer in 2002.
We here in Minnesota have been able to slow the spread so far, because we have been proactive on removal or treatment of infested trees. Preventive measures are a better and cheaper way to control the infestations. The cost of removal and replanting other varieties of trees is expensive, plus you lose the beautiful trees that you watched grow and shade your yard over the years.
Prevention Tip #1 We need to remember not to transport wood from one area to another even if it we intend to be burn it. This insect may have originally arrived in the USA in packing material from Asia. That tells me that the insect is willing to travel any way it can and as far as it can. State parks and many private campgrounds will not allow you to bring your own firewood anymore. Don’t take the wood “up north” to burn at the lake home. You may unwittingly be transporting the Emerald Ash Borer to a new location.
Prevention Tip #2 If you have not treated your Ash trees for the Emerald Ash Borer yet, or do not remember when you last applied treatments, it is time to get started. Once you do, mark it on your calendar to remind yourself to do this again next year. That’s right – just once a year is all it takes. With the new products on the market, home owners can treat their own tree in about 5 minutes with no spraying. Bayer, Bonide, Fertilome, Optrol and others package a concentrated formula that you only need to mix in one to two gallons of water and pour around the base of the tree. If you have rock, wood mulch and fabric at the base of the tree you will need to pull it back before applying the chemical treatment. Be sure to follow each product’s instructions to determine the proper amount to use, because each product may have different concentrations of the active chemical (imidacloprid).
Don’t be fooled by the cost, those with the heavier concentration require less actual product. In the long run, you use less and pay less per tree.
Hey, if you do not want to do it yourself, there are many companies out there that will do it for you with different techniques and some treatments only need to be done every 2 years.
I hope this helps you. For more information stop in and see me or other members of the staff. You can also learn more by checking out our Dundee Fact Sheet on Emerald Ash Borer.
Now get back to the your yard and enjoy what this spring has to offer.