Monster Tree Service takes pride in helping our customers with the health care of their trees. In Minnesota, unfortunately all our Ash trees are now in trouble. Remember when we went through the huge wave of Dutch Elm Disease? (I personally lost five beautiful elm trees in my yard..very sad). Well, now the ash trees are being attacked by an unwelcome bug called the Emerald Ash Borer or EAB. You probably saw a picture of the bug on the home page of this website. Ugly bug, but with a shiny emerald green back. Looks a lot like a grasshopper.

The other day one of our arborist’s attended a workshop on the detection and preventative measures for treating the trees and the wood-boring beetle. Funny thing, he came back with a vial which had an actual Emerald Ash Borer in it. Science right in the office. I was surprised it was so small, and apparently you can’t really see the emerald color too well, or maybe that’s just because the one I was looking at was dead.

So this beetle attacks all native species of ash trees, typically killing them in two to three years. Its larvae bore tunnels under the bark to feed on inner bark tissue. The tunnels cut the flow of nutrient and water to leaves, causing the tree to die. I say, let’s let the beetle die instead! We can treat healthy ash trees so the beetle and larvae are killed and can no longer hurt the tree!

So the bad news is that Minnesota is predicted to lose 6 million ash trees to this bug. But the good news is that ash trees that are still healthy and structurally sound can be protected if treated with registered insecticides. Give us call and we’ll come out and take a look at your ash trees and discuss your options.