Tuesday, August 28, 2012
IT'S HERE !
In 2010 the emerald ash borer was found on both sides of the 401 near Homer watson Blvd. in the cities of Kitchener and Cambridge. It has now been positively identified in multiple sites in the City of waterloo. Indeed the infestation discovered by Conestoga mall in the north end of Waterloo is thought to be nearly five years old based upon the numbers and extent.
It would seem pretty obvious to me that if it's been in the north end of waterloo for five years that it's probably already into Elmira and woolwich Township. Older and larger ash trees can be saved with a preemptive injection of a product called TreeAzin. Generally the response is to stop planting ash trees in cities and to remove and burn infested ones. I would strongly suspect that beside this beetle being an invasive species from China which got here in packing crates; that its' spread may well be assisted by our warmer tempuratures and milder winters. The article in today's Waterloo Region Record is titled "Ash borer invades Waterloo trees".
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Based on our lab's work on the EAB, it's not really limited by cold weather (basically it can handle just about anything we throw at it). The only places in Canada where it would be cold enough to kill it in the winter are places where there aren't any ash trees.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, it's possible that warmer winters might be a detriment to the EAB. Turns out that a blast of warmth mid-winter tricks them into thinking that winter is over and they lose all their cold tolerance. So if it got cold again, that might kill them.
Well thank you Katie! Son of a gun it's nice having some technical backup especially when my guess is wrong. Thanks again!
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