Treating ash trees to protect them from the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB)
Updated Saturday April 7, 2005

On Monday March 27, 2005 an anonymous message was posted that said.
"I'm afraid you're way off base on this, Bob. I own a tree service in Ann Arbor. It's very expensive to treat individual ash trees, very time-consuming, and it involves using large quantities of strong insecticides."

From Bob -
I appreciate your taking time to view our site and leave a comment.

DO IT YOURSELF SOIL DRENCH (pouring the insecticide on the ground)
There is A product available at Home Depot and elsewhere which you mix with water and pour around the base of the tree. It's called Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect Control. That treatment costs about $20 for a 10" DBH tree. $60 for a 30" DBH. That's fairly easy to do but cost more than the do-it-yourself capsule insertions. Also, Michigan State University test results from Troy, Michigan in 2004 say that those products may work better for smaller trees (3-4" DBH). DBH means Diameter at Breast Height. That is the TREE'S diameter measured at the height of YOUR breast.The older trees in the Troy test did not due well at all with this product but there were some smaller, younger trees in a previous test in the Detroit area which had 100% success. Also, some people are concerned about pouring those chemicals on the ground where other insects and life forms can be affected. ("Life forms" - that sounds like something from Star Trek)

DO-IT-YOURSELF DRILLING AND INSERTION OF CAPSULES
There are products on the market now for homeowners that are called AceCap97 (www.acecap-medicap.com). You can buy them for I think about a dollar a piece. I am buying them in quantities of 300 at a cost of $0.75 each to start treating some trees at my place, Stewart Farm on Harsens Island. A 10" diameter tree needs eight of those AceCaps. That is somewhere around $6 to $8 for a 10" DBH tree. A 30" DBH tree would cost three times that much, etc. The homeowner drills 3/8" diameter holes around the base of the tree at 4" apart. The holes need to be about and inch and a half deep. Then you push in this little capsule about the size of a medicine capsule. It has a plastic cap on the end that seals the hole. The capsule will open itself within a couple of days and all of the chemicals stay right in the tree. I think that product was about 75% affective in a MSU Troy, Michigan test in 2004.

TREE INJECTION TREATMENTS
Recent treatments, which were 100% successful in the Troy tests were done by certified pesticide applicators and are much more expensive. If you don't want to mess with it yourself and you want a guarantee you should go that way. If I had to guess I would say it might be $100 for a 10" DBH. tree. Of course if you have a lot of trees to do, it should be cheaper than that.

I have been told that these injection systems are available to homeowners for their personal use without having to obtain a pesticide applicator's license. I am checking into that further and will post details as I find out more. You should expect that if you do those injection treatments yourself you might not do quite as good a job as an experienced professional and therefore not get results of 100%. You will still need to drill some holes, but not as many as the AceCAP97. After paying the $400 for the injection system itself, the pesticides to go with it should cost about $3.50 per Diameter Inch of tree. A 10" tree for $35. A 30" tree for $105. Once you have invested in the equipment it will be less expensive than hiring a certified applicator. I also understand from the company that makes that system (Arborjet or Winchester, MA) (www.arborjet.com) that they have been finding that trees treated with their system only need treatment every other year, and that they are hoping that this years test may show that every third year is sufficient. If that becomes the case we should see the resulting price being about $13 for a 10" tree. I have also been told that the patent on the chemical which Arborjet purchases to use in their system will be expiring in the next couple years and at that time the price is expected to drop about 30%. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

So far I have concentrated on the systemic products which work on killing the larvae in the tree. I have done that because this is the spring and the spring is the time of the year to get those treatments done before the bugs emerge from the tree. There are also sprays for the adults on the leaves which are more effective later in the year and I will get to those as I get time.

I welcome additional information on other treatments and on the pricing which I have shown above..

Our visitor who posted the message which I quoted at the top of this page went on to give some additional comments and concluded with: "My opinion is that trying to contain the pest is a futile endeavor, and the MDA is wasting time and money. But they are certainly NOT bad guys. I have complete respect for the dedicated entomologists and researchers who are trying to stay on top of this. These are people who cherish our environmental resources as well as anyone, and in fact they've dedicated their careers to the task."

I will agree with everything you said there including the part about "trying to contain the pest is a futile endeavor." Trying to contain the EAB is a futile effort, but, saving trees is not. I know that we can save some trees in the midst of the spread and devastation of this pest. I don't see why we have chain saws helping the pest's efforts. There has been a lot of research and testing done since this program of cutting healthy ash trees began. The government knows of the successes in the tests but is unable to shift gears in their programs quick enough to keep up with the knowledge base. They keep telling us "This work is being done with federal funds, it is earmarked for cutting trees and can't be used for treating trees."

In the next few weeks we'll be adding more information about treating ash trees to protect them from the Emerald Ash Borer and to help stop the spread of this destructive insect. We want to get all of our spring treatments done by the end of April.

For additional information on the subject of treatments please visit the our LINKS page.

Thank you,
Bob Williams