# Ash borer injury to green ash.



## BHTX936 (Mar 7, 2009)

Hello, I noticed evidence of ash borers in one of my ashes recently. There are about 8 holes or so currently. Are there any treatments any of you may recommend and where I could possibly find them at. Thank you.


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## ATH (Mar 7, 2009)

Bush Hog 936 said:


> Hello, I noticed evidence of ash borers in one of my ashes recently. There are about 8 holes or so currently. Are there any treatments any of you may recommend and where I could possibly find them at. Thank you.



Depends on which borer is hitting it. Can you post pictures?


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## tomtrees58 (Mar 7, 2009)

do you have die back at the top tom trees


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## BHTX936 (Mar 8, 2009)

There is no die back yet but I took a picture. Maybe this isn't ash borer at all? The tree had a codominant leader breakage during hurricane Ike.


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## ATH (Mar 9, 2009)

You absolutely have something boring in there. The question is it Emerald Ash Borer, or something less terrifying. If it is EAB, your Dept of Agriculture (or whoever is in charge of pest detection) will want to know as will the USDAS_APHIS

Here is a link to some resources to help identify EAB and other common ash borers. Really, to know with pretty good certainity, you have to scrape the bark and look for S-shaped galleries. Please keep us posted. Those pictures look a little questionable, but not enough evidence for me to tell if it is EAB or not. Worth checking into more.


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## Urban Forester (Mar 9, 2009)

That looks like experimental feeding from woodpeckers. Since woodpeckers have a pretty good "nose" for food, I would think that it probably is a borer.
I would guess that it is banded ash borer, or two-line chestnut borer. Pretty far south for EAB. However the following is a possibilty: _In recent stroms that swept through the midwest many line crews from other states were called up to help in the cleanup. Believe it or not, many were seen heading back home with their chip trucks partially full. Since EAB can survive on wood chips as small as 1 inch, it's very possible that EAB pockets will now start breaking out in the areas where these line crews came from._ I would remove some bark from a small area around those "holes" and see if you can find any larvae or galleries. Take it (larvae) to a entomologist for I.D.


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## BHTX936 (Mar 9, 2009)

It don't look like woodpecker to me and the damage is all in the bottom 4 feet of the trunk. I'll do what you said and see if I can find the larvae and take one in. Thanks for the replies folks.


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## Rickytree (Mar 9, 2009)

Also the EAB has a D shaped exit wound.


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## BHTX936 (Mar 9, 2009)

Here's another picture taken today. Haven't seen any beetles near the tree just carpenter ants now. Thanks.


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## Rickytree (Mar 9, 2009)

To me it looks as though there is some rotten wood there. You need to eliminate the ants and possibly seal off the holes with tar. Tar won't hurt the tree because the tree has already walled off this wood.


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## glennschumann (Mar 9, 2009)

Please forgive the neophyte arborist question, but a friend said he wanted to get some tar to put on trees where he was going to trim branches, and I didn't think that was necessary (ash trees). Am I to gather that there are some benefits to applying "tar" to wounds, but not to fresh cuts?

When is the best time to prune ash trees?

Thanks


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## treeseer (Mar 10, 2009)

Bush Hog 936 said:


> Here's another picture taken today. Haven't seen any beetles near the tree just carpenter ants now. Thanks.


Taking off dead bark to expose entry holes is good.

Taking off living bark outside of entry holes is very very bad. Easy does it with the knife.

I don't think tar is the answer.

the ants are not the problem.

If it's already leafing out then maybe hold off major pruning til leaves are formed.

can you post a pic of the codom tearout wound?


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## BHTX936 (Mar 13, 2009)

We have a couple of days of rain but I'll get a picture soon Ive been planning on that.


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## BHTX936 (Mar 28, 2012)

*Update*

UPDATE: It was Redheaded Ash Borer. Trees full of em now.


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## ATH (Mar 28, 2012)

That is an old one...thanks for the update?

Are there too many to treat?

If you explore treatment, be aware that these generally only attacked stressed trees so there is something bigger than redheaded ash borer going on. If you eliminate the borer, but don't address the underlying problem you haven't helped the tree too much.


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