I told Mr. lawildcat just the other day that once the ash trees are gone, these bugs are certain to adapt to their environment and attack other trees.

 

 

 

emerald ash borer moves to white fringetree

 

The beetle that has devastated ash trees across much of the Eastern United States and is attacking in full force across the Bluegrass has jumped to another type of tree, alarming scientists.

 

A new discovery of the emerald ash borer in a native ornamental, the white fringetree, could be big trouble for that tree, experts said this week. But it also raises the question of what other trees potentially might be in danger, as ashes vanish in the beetle's wake and the insect seeks other targets for completing its life cycle.

 

While surprising and disappointing to some plant experts, the discovery in white fringetrees in the Dayton, Ohio, area was not out of the question. Ash and fringetree are related; both are in the olive family, which has hundreds of species of trees and shrubs, including forsythia and lilac.

 

"Next up might be lilacs," said Paul Capiello, executive director of Yew Dell Botanical Gardens in Oldham County. "There are scores of species of lilac. They are in the same family. This will be important to watch."

 

Dayton-based Wright State University professor Don Cipollini made the discovery that ash borers had attacked white fringetrees during a summer and fall of scientific sleuthing in Ohio.

 

"I just happened to look for it," starting with a white fringetree in his own yard in the Dayton-area community of Yellow Springs, Cipollini said. "I decided this summer I would systematically examine these trees for evidence of emerald ash borer."

 

Cipollini found four fringetrees, or 20 percent of those he examined, were under attack by the ash borers, and presented his findings to federal authorities. Late last week, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official confirmed the evidence.

 

USDA this week said it will now conduct further research to learn more about the borers' potential impact on white fringetree. The agency also said it would review previous research which led them to believe that only ash trees were vulnerable.

 

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Earlier research had tested various members of the olive family to see whether the ash borer would attack them, including lilac and privet, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Paul Chaloux wrote to state officials last week.

 

"Those species were not attacked by EAB," he wrote.

 

What can be done?

 

Cipollini's finding, according to Chaloux, means USDA will need to "follow up on the many questions this development raises, including whether what Cipollini found is limited to the Dayton area may be occurring across a larger geographic area.

 

In a statement issued late Tuesday, USDA's APHIS said it would also "engage national, state, and industry partners as part of the regulatory decision-making process" should the agency declare white fringetree as an ash-borer host and the plant and its parts as regulated under quarantine rules.

 

The agency has the authority to restrict shipment of trees and tree parts across state lines from quarantine zones.

 

In all, some 25 million ash trees have been wiped out in states such as Ohio, Michigan and Indiana since it was first identified in Michigan in 2002. The borer arrived in Kentucky five years ago, and Kentucky Division of Forestry officials reported earlier this year that the full force of this Asian invader was being felt from Lexington to Louisville and north to Cincinnati.

 

Ash trees are being wiped out from rural landscapes, parks, leafy subdivisions and urban corridors.

 

The white fringetree grows wild from New Jersey south to Florida and west to Oklahoma and Texas, including Kentucky.

 

It can reach 15 to 20 feet tall and can grow in a shrub or tree form, said Capiello. They are sold at some Louisville nurseries, he said, and can be seen occasionally in local landscaping at at Yew Dell Gardens and Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest.

 

"They flower in the late spring with a vary fragrant, fringy white bloom," Capiello said. "It's a cool little tree. It has picked up a lot of popularity in the last 15 years that would parallel the native plant movement. It would be a shame to lose it."

 

The white fringetree isn't nearly as common locally as the ash trees that are under attack in the region, and they are not big shade trees, said

 

Sarah Stolz, a horticultural agent with University of Kentucky's Cooperative Extension in Jefferson County. So any mortality of white fringetree would not result in the same "economic turmoil" as the borer has caused with several species of ash trees it targets, she said.

 

But nursery owners and managers said it could suppress commercial nursery sales of the tree, and that would be a shame.

 

"I love that tree," said Martin Korfhage, president of the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association. They are great in the Louisville area because they usually bloom during Derby Week, he said.

 

He said he was not surprised. "Very seldom do you have an insect that affects just one (type) of tree," said Korfhage, of Clinton Korfhage Landscaping in Louisville.

 

Still, the discovery is big news in the tree and plant world.

 

"When I heard about it, I said, 'Whoa, wait a minute'." said Bernheim Forest horticulturist Eric Garris. "I think it will change a lot of perspectives."

 

Connecting the dots

 

Cipollini, a professor of plant physiology and chemical ecology, conducts other research on what makes Asian ash trees more resistant, and various plant and insect interactions. To make his case that ash borers were attacking the white fringetree, he found the pest's characteristic D-shaped exit holes in them, and fully developed larval galleries under the bark that were identical to those caused by the ash borer.

 

But official confirmation, he said, required capturing an adult male, and examining its genitalia — what Cipollini described as the gold standard for making an official identification.

 

"Sometimes," he said, "the adults get stuck in the bark." So one day a couple of weeks ago, the scientist took a fresh look at a bark sample he had collected earlier in the year. It had dried, and was cracking.

 

"I took a chunk of the log, looked into one of the cracks, and a little gleam of light came at me," a bright reflection from the shiny beetle's back. "I just about fell backward."

 

Going forward, the discovery raises a lot of questions, including what people should do if they have fringetrees in their yards.

 

There are effective ways to treat and protect ash trees with insecticides. Cipollini said they may also work on white fringetree.

 

But he also offered a word of caution. One effective method uses an insecticide that's taken up by the entire plant. In white fringetree, that pesticide would then also be found in its bounty of flowers and fleshy fruits, he said.

 

"There would be a much greater chance of getting the pesticide into pollinators and birds," than with ash trees, he warned.

 

Experts said people may also be less inclined to treat a small tree than they would a large shade tree, like an ash. "It's not the one shade tree that shades your deck," Capiello said. "This is akin, at the largest, to a dogwood."

 

Stoltz noted that borer attacks on fringetrees have not been documented locally, but said that the extension office can help fringetree owners weigh their options.

 

"There are still a lot of questions," she said.

This is really sad. We have a stand of woods next to our house, and it was full of huge old Ash Trees, and they are dead or dying.

It is sad what those little buggers can do. Lots of gorgeous trees now gone. I first became aware of the problem about 10 years ago when my oldest boy entered boy scouts and we were not allowed to transport firewood between counties. Unfortunately it was a rule ignored on a regular bases. We have an Ash we will lose at some point. It's just too darn expensive to protect them.

I want something done about this. :taz:

 

About 1/3 of the trees in the woods next to my house are afflicted - with many already dead.

We were going to mark the dead ones to cut down over the fall/winter but have been told that eventually they will all die so cut as you desire. Also been hearing some tree trimmers will not be cutting them if they have been dead for a year or longer. The upper branches are falling on them as they are trying to drop the trees.

We were going to mark the dead ones to cut down over the fall/winter but have been told that eventually they will all die so cut as you desire. Also been hearing some tree trimmers will not be cutting them if they have been dead for a year or longer. The upper branches are falling on them as they are trying to drop the trees.

 

We have 18 of 22 trees in our immediate yard, ash. I began trimming limbs this past weekend for this very reason, they are falling. I have noticed a number of dead ash trees on the right of way of county roads, but not much being done by the state to eliminate the risk to drivers. It won't be long until an ash splits in the wind and falls onto or into the path of a car and injures someone seriously.

 

We plan to begin dropping en masse so we can get them cured out this summer and ready to hit the boiler by winter....

If anyone needs wood and wants to cut some trees in Frankfort...come have at it.

Why can't we get rid of the culprits?

4 huge Ash trees now dead in our yard. Going to be expensive.

Why can't we get rid of the culprits?

I've heard they don't consider the Ash tree to be that valuable, more in the shrub family so the agriculture department does not want to invest their efforts. Private treatment is very expensive.

On my small farm nearly all the Red Elm trees have died as well. I have burnt nothing but dead trees the last several years to heat my home in the winter.

I've heard they don't consider the Ash tree to be that valuable, more in the shrub family so the agriculture department does not want to invest their efforts. Private treatment is very expensive.

 

in 2012 I was quoted $2000 initial treatment then $800 annually for a large tree I have. This is probably the last summer for it as it's about half dead now.

Why can't we get rid of the culprits?

 

Invasive, no natural predators. These things were introduced from China via wooden pallets through Detroit, then made their way south. Can only really "treat" affected trees, rather than prevent spread.

 

If we start to notice, many of our invasive species come from Asia. Between the Ash Borer and Asiatic Honeysuckle I'm about to my wits end