Palm trees are one of the most decorative and unique trees that you'll find in the warmer, more tropical climates. When properly cared for, these trees can be beautiful and full of foliage. However, knowing how to care for them isn't always easy. That's probably why you're here. If it is, then you're in the right place. This site is dedicated to the care and maintenance of all sorts of trees, including tropical varieties like palm trees. The information on this page can help you to understand which of the basic care steps you can do yourself and which steps are best done by a local tree service.
Same Peterson
The emerald ash borer (EAB) is a species of bright green beetle that just loves to invade ash trees. It bores into the tree, lays its eggs, and those eggs develop into larvae that eat the tree's vascular tissues. This almost always kills the tree. The EAB has spread across the United States, killing a multitude of ash trees along the way. As this has happened, people have become more aware and informed about these beetles, but the following falsehoods still get tossed around from time to time.
If you treat all of your ash trees, you'll prevent them from being infested.
Some homeowners, after hearing about the EAB, go out and have all of their trees either sprayed with insecticides or injected with insecticides. They believe that if they do this once, their tree will be safe. But this is not exactly the case.
Spray-on insecticides actually do little to nothing to keep the EAB at bay, which is one reason the beetles have spread so easily. Injected insecticides can curtain the EAB, but they don't last that long. Trees need to be re-injected every year in order for the insecticide to remain effective. That treatment can get pretty costly if you have multiple ash trees, so it's worth getting an estimate from a tree care company before you commit to this preventative maintenance.
Once a tree becomes infested, there's no hope.
This may have been true at first, but now that the EAB has been around for a while, tree care companies have become pretty adept at treating infestations. You do have to act quickly, though. The sooner the tree receives trunk injections, the better its chances of survival. Know these signs of emerald ash borer infestation, and call your tree care service ASAP.
You should leave an EAB-infested tree standing to protect your neighbor's trees.
The idea here is that by leaving up your infested tree, you're preventing the EABs from moving on to another tree. Unfortunately, this strategy does not work. EABs use trees to reproduce, so the longer you leave an infested tree standing, the more EABs there will be. They'll have no choice but to spread to neighboring trees. The best thing you can do for your neighbor's ash trees is have your EAB infestation treated and then remove the tree promptly if it does not respond to treatment.
Hopefully, this has helped clarify some truth about the emerald ash borer. These beetles are ruthless, but tree care companies can fight back.