Infestations also have been reported on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base which developed and executed a plan to control the problem.
“This is not panic time,” said Thais Reiff, a certified emerald ash borer specialist with the county extension center and a master gardener. “It’s here. It has an effect on us. It will be serious within the next two to three years.”
The beetle was identified locally during the summer of 2002, but there is uncertainty about the exact time frame the emerald ash borer initially arrived in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The insect could have been in the country for 12 years before it was identified.
The emerald ash borer, which is native to China and east Asia, is blamed for the death and illness of tens of millions of trees in the country, according to USDA.
The bug was later identified in Toledo in 2003. Since then, it has been found in 67 percent of the state’s 88 counties including Butler, Greene, Montgomery and Warren counties, according the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The Rona Village community, in Fairborn, had 72 ash trees, but the property manager, Mike McClain noticed a problem with the trees about three years ago. All the ash trees were removed from the neighborhood in May.
“It’s kind of a silent killer,” McClain said.
The larvae are the killers, according to Reiff. Inside the tree underneath the bark, larvae travel downward feeding on the soft tissue and creating a pattern in the shape of the letter “S.”
“What they are doing with this is interrupting the paths for water and nutrients,” Reiff said. That’s what kills the tree.”
The beetle can kill a tree within five years.
The adult beetle flies to the top of the tree around mid-May and feeds on the leaves for about two weeks. This feeding doesn’t harm the tree.
“It gives him (the beetle) the strength to mate,” Reiff said.
After the emerald ash borer feeds, it mates. The female lays her eggs, about 60 to 100, under the tree bark. Within 10 days, the eggs will hatch and the larvae will eat its way through the bark leaving small holes in the tree.
“Stopping this little guy is probably not realistic,” Reiff said.
Treatment is available for the trees which would help control the problem, but it’s not a guaranteed cure, according to Reiff.
Ninety percent, about 300, of the trees in Gerspacher Park, which is about 3.4 acres, are ash trees, according to Jeff Stine, the Beavercreek parks section leader. All of the 23 parks in the city have ash trees as well.
Stein said he received tree treatment estimates for as much as $100 per tree. It was cheaper for the city to remove and replace the infested trees.
Within the next couple of weeks, the city will start to remove some of the more infested trees from Gerspacher Park, Stein said.
“We’ll remove the more dangerous trees as they come up,” Stine said. “We just don’t have the funds.”
The ash trees in Gerspacher Park will be replaced with spruce and pine trees. The city has recycled Christmas trees donated by residents and planted them in the park.
McClain said he plans to plant select Cleveland pear trees to replace the ash trees. He also wants to use another species but hasn’t made a decision on which one yet.
“This is hurting me already,” Stein said. “I feel like all these trees I planted are like my little kids.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2208 or sharahn.boykin @coxinc.com.
About the Author