Does this look like EAB damage?

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onion

Burning Hunk
Hearth Supporter
Nov 3, 2009
184
Ohio
[Hearth.com] Does this look like EAB damage?
[Hearth.com] Does this look like EAB damage?


Two different trees about 20 yards apart. There are 4 other ashes nearby, 2 are much, much bigger and 2 closer to this size. None of those 4 show any sign of stress like these two.
 
I know of two signs of EAB damage. One will be D shaped holes on the trunk of the tree. I've noticed them in a complete circle around the trunk of smaller trees. Another sign is that you will see what looks like saplings sprouting up at the base of the tree. I haven't seen a healthy Ash tree in quite a while around here. If the EAB is coming your way, get ready to start cutting.
 
I'm inclined to say yes, they look just like mine...not good
 
Yep, they just slowly die off... Mine took 4 years.
 
Got a good chainsaw ? You are going to need it. Ash is the only thing I have been burning
for a few years now. Mainly becuse of that bugg. The city of Fort Wayne, In. said they have
over 12,500 ash trees in the city They are going to try to save 10% do the math ....Smokin jay would
be in hevan!
 
That sucks, I see a lot of that in our woods and it supposedly isn't here yet.
 
I figured as much but thought I would ask before I cut them down. The pisser is that the biggest of the ashes is close enough to the road that I'll likely need to hire an arborist to take it down when the time comes.
 
Another symptom is bark splits. If you can peel any bark back without further damage to the tree you can check for galleries like in the pictures. There is an effective injection pesticide for the larger trees if they are worth saving to you, but the cost may end up being around $200/ tree. The common name is treeage. It will kill essentially all the larvae in the tree and is good for 2-3 years. There are other things that affect ash trees, but if you are in an area that has EAB, then you probably are looking at that as the pest.
 

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Just remember that there are native Borers as well, they will produce the same type of damage under the bark (not as bad), but since they have natural predators they are not a problem for 99% of the trees. The Emerald Ash Borer is the problem. Look for the D shaped holes in the trunk it's very unlikely that this seasons EAB would have caused that much damage already so with beetles hatching out to lay eggs just in the last 6-8 weeks your trees if infested will show signs of the D holes. The larva this season would have just started to hatch and feed so no holes from the previous season, my guess is it's something else...I could be wrong tho...
 
Here is another sign of EAB. The outer bark starts falling off and you will notice this the worst during the winter months. Also, I partially agree with Shortie. He wrote, "One will be D shaped holes on the trunk of the tree. I’ve noticed them in a complete circle around the trunk of smaller trees. Another sign is that you will see what looks like saplings sprouting up at the base of the tree."

The D shaped holes are the give-a-way and also the suckers. However, I have not seen any at the base of the tree but rather they start around 6' up. This is on the ash trees that are in the woods and they might react differently in the open areas.

The picture was taken in December if memory serves me. Notice the lack of bark.

[Hearth.com] Does this look like EAB damage?
 
I was corrected this week on my initial thoughts about eab, I guess the lave can feed for 2 seasons before there are signs of exit holes.
They also prefer the smaller branches closer to the top of the trees and if you start seeing exit holes on the main trunk it's usually
too late for the Ash tree to survive any treatment.
You may ask where my information comes from, well I just spent wednesday with folks from Arborjet and True Green
doing trunk injections on 38 Ash trees on my street. :-)
It was a 3 year fight with the city to release a permit to us to let us treat our tree lawn trees...I mean sheesh
They were going to spend money cutting them down and we raised enough $ for free to them treatment for 10 years
so far. Were are giving it a shot.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/07/locals_win_battle_against_city.html

(broken link removed to http://matthewfehrmann.com/ashtrees2010/)

Matthew
 
Thanks for all the replies folks. I cut one down the other day and will get the other this weekend. Unfortunately the tree in between these two (which is much bigger) is wrapped in poison ivy vines so it will be winter before I get to it (too hot to wear a tyvek suit right now!). The biggest of them (close to the road) seems to be pretty healthy and I think I am going to see about getting a doc out to treat it.
 
Another issue with ash, which is unrelated to EAB, is Ash Yellows. Mostly in wet areas. We have a lot of stressed ash with Ash Yellows around here while we wait on EAB to arrive....
 
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