PREVENTATIVE ASH BORER TREATMENT SET TO RENEW
Village residents who are interested are invited to participate in the treatment program for a bulk-rate savings...

ASH BORER QUARANTINE IN EFFECT
An Emerald Ash Borer was found in a state trap at Highways 31 and 50 in Kenosha County during 2009. Since that time, a quarantine has been in effect making it illegal to move ash material (such as logs, mulch and nursery stock), hardwood firewood, and the Emerald Ash Borer itself outside of the quarantine area. This helps to slow the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer.

ABOUT THE EMERALD ASH BORER
The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is an invasive wood boring beetle. While not a threat to human health, the Emerald Ash Borer does threaten our forest and urban tree population. It is 100% fatal to native ash trees regardless of size, age or state of health. The larva of the Ash Borer spends its life inside an ash tree feeding on the inner bark where it cannot be seen. An ash tree infested by the Emerald Ash Borer can die within two to four years. It is estimated that more than 50 million ash trees are dead or dying throughout the Midwest because of this insect.

IDENTIFYING AN ASH TREE
You can identify an Ash tree by its opposite branching pattern, two branches coming off of a main stem, one on each side, directly opposite each other. Ashes have many small dots (vascular bundles) on their leaf scars, forming a semi-circle or crescent pattern. Buds and leaf scars are opposite one another on twigs. White and green ashes have thick, diamond-patterned bark, while black ash bark is thin, ashy-gray and scaly. Leaves will appear as compound leaves with 5-11 leaflets.

IDENTIFYING AN ASH BORER INFESTATION
To determine the presence of the Emerald Ash Borer in your ash tree, look for a combination of at least two or more of the following symptoms or signs:
• excessive sucker growth at the base of the tree trunk (stressed trees will attempt to grow new branches and leaves where they are still able)
• vertical splits in the bark (larvae can often be seen beneath bark splits)
• woodpecker feeding (typically evident higher in the tree where the Emerald Ash Borer prefers to attack first - damage will look like strips of bark have been pulled off of the tree)
• D-shaped emergence holes (as adults emerge from under the bark, they create D-shaped holes that are approximately 1/8 inch in diameter)
• S-shaped fissures under the bark (as larvae feed under the bark, they wind back and forth in a serpentine pattern)
• the presence of cream-colored, slightly flattened larvae and the metallic green insect itself

PREVENTATIVE TREATMENT
There are two types of preventative treatment options that the Village uses based on the diameter of the tree trunk at waist height. Ash trees with a trunk diameter of six inches or less are treated through soil injection, two times per year. Ash trees with a trunk diameter of seven inches or more are treated through direct injection into the tree trunk every three years.

Because it is more cost effective to treat the problem than it would be to remove and replace trees after they have died, the Village began a treatment program in 2011 and has continued since. Again in 2015, the Village will contract with Trugreen (through a three-year contract) to begin treatment of approximately 1,100 ash trees within the public right-of-way and within Village parks.

Thus far, the Village has not lost any of these ash trees (those treated by the Village in public right-of-ways and parks). The right-of-way is the area 15 feet behind the curb in subdivisions and approximately five feet behind the ditch in rural areas.

BULK RATE OFFERED TO RESIDENTS
Village staff has asked Trugreen to once again extend the same bulk rate that the Village will pay for the treatment of ash trees to residents. Residents who would like to have Trugreen treat ash trees on their property (that are outside of the right of way) for the same rate being charged to the Village should contact Neal Goldman with Trugreen by telephone at 847-456-5754 or by email at [email protected].

The Village rate for treatment per ash tree is: $15.00 per tree smaller than 6” in diameter; $27.00 per tree between 6” and 9” in diameter; $56.25 per tree between 9” and 16” in diameter; and $115.00 per tree greater than 16” in diameter (all measured at waist height).