Combatting the Emerald Ash Boarer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Age twenty two thirteen ten w I E A and
ask the experts. Brought to you by hams Arborcare Online
Haamsarborcare dot com. That's h A M M. Sarborcare dot com.
Also great website, Game of trees dot com him check
that out recently, head on over there. That's Game of
Trees dot com. As a matter of fact, I'll tell

(00:30):
I'll talk to Kevin about this is the moment. Got
a little bonus bar somp. I'll tell you about that
and just a moment check that stuff out though. We
got a Game of Trees dot com. Tell form number
eight six six five nine six five three nine six.
That's eight six six five nine six five three nine six. Kevin,
how you doing this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Great? I'm sitting at the shop watching the guys get
ready to go. I've got some sales to finish, tightening
up this morning, and got my dog in the back seat.
She's hanging that soap loose. So yeah, yeah, that's great,
real quicker.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
I had it makes that makes the day go buy
a whole lot, a whole lot better. And Kevin, yes,
and they are good listeners. I uh. Of course, the
end of the school year stuff I had mentioned. I
got a I got a bonus bar of of of
your fantastic soap at the end of the school year
because I have a teenage boy, and uh, teenage boys.

(01:31):
You know, we'll leave it at that, they're teenage boys,
so uh. A couple of months ago, I had bought
a few bars of of the soap and I stuck
one of them in his backpack so it wouldn't stink
like a teenage plant. So yesterday, yesterday, we're cleaning out
the cleaning out his backpack and getting things organized, and

(01:51):
I was so happy because I got a bonus.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Bars bar soap, and there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
It's an amazing product. By then. I know we've talked
about it in the past, but for folks that that
are looking for a really really good uh be nice
and clean, smells great. Of course, the biochar body wash
shampoo soap. It's fantastic stuff. You can order that right online.
A game of trees dot com and Kevin, I was
gonna ask you. Obviously, in the news a lot the

(02:17):
past few years has been Emerald ash borer and some
of the issues caused by it, and of course you
and Sophie probably gonna be out today dealing with dealing
with treatments for those for those ea bs, and keeping
those ash trees safe and protected. Sometimes folks forget though,
this is one of those things until until this this uh,

(02:39):
this little creepy bug is defeated. You got to keep
up on, don't you.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, we're we're still in the two
year rotation. The population is probably on the down the
downside of the curve, you know, gets this big up
upswing and then all of the ash trees get invested,
and we're starting to have that decline of the ash

(03:06):
population because so many ash trees have been removed. But still,
I mean, I was just in a neighborhood yesterday. The
guy had opted you know, not to treat you know,
right away here, but across the street there were you know,
three declining ash trees like in June, Like in a

(03:29):
couple of weeks, adults are going to emerge from those
trees across the street from you, and they're going to
lay eggs only on ash tree, and yours is right here,
and so you're you're gonna get you know, all ash trees,
whether a treated or not, get egg blade on them

(03:50):
and then if you have the product in the tree,
those eggs hatch and they move into the veins that
have the product, and so there's a little bit of
a you know, death by a thousand cut potential, right,
and so you you know, we're a little early yet
to say, oh, I'm I'm not going to treat for
a few years. That a day's coming, but that day

(04:14):
is not today. And so if if you think, well
it was maybe two years ago that I had treated,
nobody's contacted me about doing it, Well, we're we're actively
doing it can be treated all through the season. So
if you have an ash tree that you know has
been treated and is viable today, we can get in

(04:38):
there and do that. So we would gladly take over that.
And we were very proactive about sending out our renewals
and our reminders, and so you get into a system
that you know, we we have this system type. Let's
just say that.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
And Kevin, not every not every arborist, every treat care
company does that. I mean, you talk about the importance
of renewals and reminders. I know that. And for folks
who have been listening to the program, they know that
it is something that's very important to you is to
make sure that people are continuing to follow the protection.

(05:14):
Not all arborists do that, and there are some folks
that may have in the past had treatments done and
may not realize that they need to keep up with
those right.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah. Absolutely. And you may have just purchased the house
and now you have an ash tree there and maybe
you know that, maybe you don't, But if you just
purchased the house, you might want to really positively identify
the trees in your yard. Of course, you can have
that done by having me out there and then you know.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
You can you can initiate that again, Kevin, can is
that something too Like let's say just bought a house
and I don't know that it's been done. Is there
any harm? Let's just say that they had done a
treatment last year? Is there anything any harm in saying
you know, if I don't know, there's no harm in
doing it and starting this year fresh? Is there?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
No, You're not gonna od on it if you're a
year ahead. Uh. And you know we had that situation
last week and I did some videos on it, very
large sixty five inch diameter, and the house had sold
and she'd had it for a couple of years now,
and so that tree was going untreated, had been treated

(06:28):
once in the past, I did. We did discover when
we excavated the trunk the root flair. There a guy
that treated it saw injection site from the last time.
It was maybe four years ago, five years ago, and
and so it wasn't a pure untreated ash. And and

(06:50):
the husband from the previous owner who had passed subsequently,
but he had he had been treating it with a
soil injection or to that real early. So that tree
we did a prunine on it last week and we
had treated it and beautiful, big, you know, massive tree

(07:11):
that now is is probably quite saying for some time longer.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
For folks that don't follow you on Instagram, I would
definitely and YouTube as well, make sure you're following Kevin
ham Game of Trees, because as soon as you mentioned
that tree, I know exactly which one I saw that picture.
I thought, Wow, what a what a beautiful big tree
that is, and what a yeah, what a trunk that
thing had. That is an amazing tree. Speaking of amazing trees, oak,

(07:38):
you know, we always think about oak trees and their
longevity and you know, generational trees that just you know
that that tree my grandpa planted, or that was even
when my grandpa was a kid, That old oak has
been around in the family for years. They do have
some some concerns, things like oak wilt and others, and
you're really working to combat combat that as well, aren't you, Kevin.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, definitely. We I did an independent study on oak
quilt back back in college and was able to interact
with some of the pioneer researchers in the field. And
we've been you know, doing oak quilt management for upwards
of thirty years now, and and so I have a
lot there's a lot of nuances to oak wild treatment

(08:24):
and and I hear you know, a lot of advice
that's been given out there, uh that it's like, well
that's that's not quite right. You know. So whoever you're
bringing in to look at your oak quote concern, you know,
you want to make sure that they're they're up on
their their stuff, and of course we are. And and

(08:46):
I post a lot of stuff on oak wilt that
it's moving into some new areas out east, and so
there's a lot of inquisitive arborous out there that they're
they're right on the like it's new to their area,
so they're really looking for answers. It's been around here,
of course for a long time, and a lot of
people have multiple red oak in their yard. We had

(09:09):
one where a storm broke a branch and we weren't
able to get in there in time. He had somebody
else get in there and take care of the branch.
I said, you know, the tree has been exposed for
over twenty four hours in the middle of our susceptible period.

(09:30):
It's kind of April, May and June in our area
where you have your high level of susceptibility to an
overland spread where a picnic beetle will we'll be feeding
on a mythelial match of the oak world fungus, the
fruiting body, and it will fly over and randomly feed
on this broken branch. And it's kind of Russian Roulette.

(09:51):
But there's a lot of bullets in the gun. And
so this tree had an exposure risk, and it was
a thirty four inch diameter red oak, beautiful tree, and
so we treated that. In fact, today it's probably getting
plugged in right now as we seek and it'll be

(10:12):
a one time treatment because it's likely in the canopy
if it got in there, and we can kind of
end that scenario with a one time treatment on a
red oak. And there is another oak that was within
grafting distance, so they grasped together underground. And so yesterday

(10:32):
we trenched in an area where we separated some live
trees from an infected tree. And by trenching, you cut
those roots and separate those grafts.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Kevin, and you mentioned too red oak, and I don't
know if somebody's and you'd be my go to guy
on this question, but like our red oaks, particularly when
it comes to oak, well, red oak is is when
it comes to an infection, that's something you really want
to take care of quickly. It's it's it's you know,
you think of things like white oak. It maybe a
little slower, whereas that infection and that that that am

(11:09):
I wrong on that? Like I for some reason I
thought red oak particularly hit hard by by oak will.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
You're exactly right. If a red oak gets infected. So
let's say this tree that had a broken brand because
that was left untreated and it did have oak will,
it would start dropping leaves this July. Oh wow, right,
and within three weeks that tree would be beare. So
it's like now that it happens, and once it's symptomatic,

(11:37):
it's our ordinary prudent answer is that you don't want
to throw money into treating that tree. It's a gamble.
You can stall it out, you know, we've got one
example where we stall it out. If you have discretionary money, uh,
and you're really early, you've got one flagging branch. You

(11:59):
can probably keep that tree alive for a number of
years with chemical treatment, but you could always lose it.
So it's kind of a gamble. It's an options trade
on the market, right, Yes, you might win, you might not.
So discretionary funds only. But the white oaks can consist

(12:20):
with the disease, and the white oaks don't graft underground
just readily as the red oaks. So you have a
network of red oaks all connected. So it gets into
one and so often we get called in and we
have well, I think, you know, two years ago this
one died. You know, now now I've got five dead one. Well,
now you have a real problem and it's going to

(12:41):
be really tough to contain that. And it just goes
from tree to tree to tree. So if you have
a tree that starts dropping leaves this July, you know,
late June, early July, they'll start flagging out at the
top of the tree, always at the top, at the
bottom leaves and they'll be falling and they'll be partially

(13:04):
brown at the edges and they're still green in the middle.
It's real quint dissension. It's real, real obvious, and they're
falling like fall, you know, and they're not wrinkled up.
They're kind of the flat shape of the leaf and
they're everywhere. You want to get right on that and
get me in there so that we can contain it

(13:25):
to that tree and not lose all the other ones.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
And it really reinforces we talk about regularly, you know,
for folks that haven't had their trees looked at, even
if they look very healthy. One of the great things
about about having you in the team at Hams Arborcare.
Come out and take a look at the tree, just
do an assessment, seeing this stuff early and if treatment
is needed, getting that taken care of before it becomes
a real issue for you. And it's a great day

(13:49):
to pick up phone and give Kevin. The team at
Hams Arborcare. Call their TELP number eight sixty six five
nine six five three nine six. That's eight six six
five nine six five three nine six. Website Hamsarborcare dot com.
That's h A M. M. Sarborcare dot com. Kevin, you
and Sophie. You enjoy this beautiful day and we'll talk
real soon.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Thank you. Sean, take care.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
A news comes your way next year on thirteen ten
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