Emerald Ash Borer Reaches West Virginia - Agriculture Commissioner Confirms

The emerald ash borer, an Asian-born pest that has killed an estimated 25 million ash trees since it arrived in Michigan five years ago, has been found in Fayette County, state Agriculture Commissioner Gus R. Douglass announced on Friday.

An emerald ash borer larva was discovered in a “trap tree” that had been prepared by the state Department of Agriculture’s Plant Industries Division to survey for the beetle, which has been found in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia and Michigan. State Forester Randy Dye has described the pest as perhaps “the biggest threat facing West Virginia’s forests today,” due to its lethal effect on healthy as well as distressed ash trees and the lack of a viable method to combat the pest.

While ash accounts for only 2 percent to 4 percent of the tree mix in West Virginia’s forests, it is a valuable wood product used in flooring, paneling and cabinets, according to Assistant State Forester Dan Kincaid. The ash borer’s arrival in West Virginia was expected to occur sometime soon, since the pest has been found within 30 miles of the state’s Northern Panhandle counties as well as in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Kincaid said.

The pest naturally moves through the woodlands at a rate of only about a half-mile each year, but the borers have sped their infestation by hitching rides aboard log trucks and on firewood brought to campsites in non-infested areas. Federal officials have established a quarantine that bans the spread of ash nursery stock, logs, green lumber and wood chips from Michigan, Ohio and other infested states.

EDIT

http://wvgazette.com/section/News/2007101928

I wonder if there's something that will kill the fuckers and not mess with anything else?

Borer is a really "tough nut to crack."

Even in areas where you can spray but in the wild it is impossible.

The Ash tree east of the Rockies might be gone.

I like ash trees....

The Purple Ash in Fall is a drop dead beauty.



Besides ash wood is very nice.

I'd like that in my yard, if there weren't any of those damned borers!!!

We're on the western edge of Wayne County MI, pretty close to ground zero. Our young ash got an infestation the second year, we treated it, and it did very well. There really wasn't even any crown die-back, just some suckering on damaged branches. We've treated it every year since (spray during hatching season, systemic soil injection during "laying" season). It's the only pesticides we use, but I still feel guilty.

But... I love that tree, for reasons I won't go into...

but... my environmental side keeps saying we should take it out...

but... it survived the battle! It seems so wrong to kill it now...

but...

Well, you get the idea. As a botanist, what do you think? It's only 4-5 inch diameter, and it's a white ash, not the EAB's preferred green ash, but still... pesticides...

But...