(The following is a transcription of the recorded interview, with additional details added for the website. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.)
Lauren: Nick and I are standing in front of a healthy ash tree, and you've probably heard of the emerald ash borer. Nick, what exactly is the emerald ash borer?
Nick: So emerald ash borer is actually an invasive beetle from Asia. They detected in about 2002, but it's probably been here a little longer than that. It's essentially wiping out the ash trees across North America.
Lauren: How would we know that our ash tree has been infected by these beetles?
Nick: As far as infection, you're going be first looking at the canopy. Leaf loss is the number one indicator. If you look up and you see that your tree looks a little thin, or it's noticing it's losing leaves at the top, that's a large sign for ash borer.
This tree had been infected before it was treated, but you can kind of see there's like channels in there. That's actually where the larva of ash borer, which is what pretty much kills the tree, eats away at that inside tissue. Basically suffocate the tree by eating the circulatory system. If one of them isn't infected, it'll eventually get it. The bugs will fly to the next tree, infect that one with larva, and essentially take its time on killing that tree over the next two, three years.
Lauren: If a tree is already infected, is there anything we can do or can you slow the decay process?
Nick: Yes, there is something you can do. There's called micro injection treatments. Basically, what we do is we inject at the base of the tree around the tree, we drill little ports about six to eight inches apart around the whole diameter of that base, and then we inject it with a chemical called amanactin benzoate used for specifically emerald ash borer treatments.
Lauren: Is that a 100% effective?
Nick: It's about they say around ninety eight percent effective. It works best as a preventative treatment. If your tree looks healthy, that is the best time to treat it. If it's in the early stages of infestation, that's another great time. But once you lose about 30% of your canopy or your leaves, you're looking at probably removing that tree. The treatment's a lot less effective at that point.
