Extreme cold may wipe out high percentage emerald ash borer larvae

[Jerry Toschlog]

Extreme cold may wipe out high percentage emerald ash borer larvae


sounds like good news to me, getting rid of any of those suckers would be great.

http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/2014/01/extreme-cold-may-wipe-out-high-percentage-emerald-ash-borer-larvae/

[tim morris]

While I realize there are a lot of insects that have value, I wonder (hope) it will have ill effect on some of the more pesky for next season.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Doesn't the upper midwest get really cold on a regular (annual) basis? Isn't the upper midwest the area losing most of the ash? I'm not thinking the cold has helped them much.

[John Coloccia]

Quick, let's cut them all down before those stupid insects have a chance to reinfest them.

[Jim Andrew]

Hope it's true, but no evidence from past cold snaps. The borers here in Kansas are horrible. I cut a nice ash tree up a few years ago, and stacked it inside with stickers, and went back to get some boards a few months later and the boards were just riddled. After sawing there were just a few, and I blew those out with my air compressor, guess there were others hiding in there and they bred many more.

[tim morris]

Doesn't the upper midwest get really cold on a regular (annual) basis? Isn't the upper midwest the area losing most of the ash? I'm not thinking the cold has helped them much.

Anthony yes we get chilly here on a regular basis but not to the extreme we are getting right now. I don't know to what temperature some insects are hardy but the overnight low we had last night had not been seen around here since 96'

[John McClanahan]

It's all a nice thought, but why then does Alaska have so many insects in the summer?

John

[Ken Barton]

Read an article yesterday that said at -30, 95% of the larvae freeze. They are mostly water, so it kind of messes them up. It has to be that cold for an extended period of time and it looks like this polar vortex will do the trick, at least here in Minnesota. Here is a link http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/201...-borer-larvae/

[Stephen Pereira]

This is why *I loved northern Mn..a prolonged cold snap weeds out the undesireables..bugs and people.

[Roderick Gentry]

I hope that happens we are getting colder than usual weather in my part of Canada, but still, they were supposed to have died out from cold weather we had before. The question is what their point of origin was, and how the surviving bugs will compare to the point of origin of the infestation, and the trees that are down, etc... The other good news I heard about these guys was that the thinking is they will move on to another tree once they finish with the ash.

[Larry Edgerton]

Hope it's true, but no evidence from past cold snaps. The borers here in Kansas are horrible. I cut a nice ash tree up a few years ago, and stacked it inside with stickers, and went back to get some boards a few months later and the boards were just riddled. After sawing there were just a few, and I blew those out with my air compressor, guess there were others hiding in there and they bred many more.

That is not Ash Borers. You have a different insect problem. Ash Borers just eat through the cambium layer cutting off the food supply to the tree. They do not actually bore into the interior of the tree. Powder Post beatles on the other hand love ash, and will make a mess out f it in a hurry.

I harvested all my ash trees two years ago when I saw signs. I wonder where Morel mushrooms will grow now?

Larry