Country Life

"The emerald ash borer is an Asian native that likely rode wooden packing materials to America. It was first discovered destroying ash trees in Michigan in 2002. Since then, it's moved mostly south and east by firewood and flight, killing tens of millions of all species of ash trees in 20 states. The first ones showed up in central Pennsylvania in 2012. The alarming part is that the emerald ash borer is so devastating that it's expected to kill nearly 100 percent of ash trees within four to five years."

"Many municipalities, power companies and tree-owners already are cutting down ashes pre-emptively. It's too expensive to chemically protect masses of ash trees, and if you wait until they're failing, they became fall hazards and much more expensive to remove. (Brittle dead and dying ash trees are more hazardous for tree companies to work on than healthy, solid ones.)"

"Do you ignore the coming threat, figuring you'll pay later if necessary while hoping the tree doesn't fall down in the meantime? Do you bite the bullet and pay a few hundred dollars now to remove a tree that might look fine? Or do you invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars for unknown years of treatments to save your ash from the borers? The most effective treatment is an insecticide called emamectin benzoate, which tree companies can inject into the trunk of ash trees every two years."