The Ash (Borer) Man Cometh

We’re celebrating my “now I’m in my late 60’s” birthday this afternoon and who should show up my front door but Wayne White, Certified Master Arborist and head of the “Save the Ash” campaign.

He was here to do what he did last year to protect the ash that shades our bedroom from the dreaded Emerald Ash Borer. See

Towns like Lake in the Hills and Algonquin seem to have given up, although Lake in the Hills is having a meeting on the subject 6:30 PM Wednesday, June 17th, at village hall.

You see a foretaste of the chain saw massacres to come in towns that would rather react than take preventative measures in the picture here taken by Pete Gonigam, publisher of the First Electric Newspaper, a new publication reporting on Algonquin, Lake in the Hills and Huntley.

In any event, the ash man stopped by and I asked him for an update.

This spring when he was here to inject the insecticide into the ground among the roots of our ash tree, he told me he had just gotten back from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, where every tree bigger than 18 inches in diameter is being treated.

See

He said that his people with the insecticide injecting tool, a “wedgle,” had just finished 12,000 diameter inches of trees in Cedarburg and he was on his way to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to do 35,000 diameter inches.

The injections are made to the cambium layer of the tree so as the ash tree draws moisture and nourishment from the ground, it will also pull up the ash borer poison. Injections are made every inch around trunk.

He said our ash was 23 diameter inches.

White has also treated trees in the Parks of Barrington. There are 98 ash trees in that subdivision.

Above you can see the devastation that will result without preventative treatment. The trees that are green were treated at Michigan’s Oakland County International Airport. The dead trees are across the street.

The last time White was in Crystal Lake, I told him he ought to make up some yard signs like other businesses like blacktop and home repair services post.

He brought the sign you see above and it’s in front of our home on Lake Avenue in Lakewood. The 800 number, 1-877 SAVE ASH, is even on the sign.

6,500 cars a year drove past in the last study I saw.

Meanwhile reports of the bug spreading along the North Shore communities like Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Deerfield, Highland Park and Wilmette have appeared in the new North Section of Chicago Tribune. I’d show you the really big article, but it went bye-bye with my hard drive crash.

The Elgin Courier-News wrote last week under “Elgin News” that the ash borer was in St. Charles, where the village government is going to remove about 500 trees. The Campton Hills area is losing 400 that are 60-70 years old. The story notes that the beetles have been spotted elsewhere in Kane County, as well as Kendall, LaSalle, DuPage, Lake and Cook Counties.

Today’s article, which focused on LITH, also mentioned Sycamore and DeKalb where the D-shaped holes and woodpeckers are showing up.


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