Emerald Ash Borer Insecticide management

Cale Beccue

My name is Cale Beccue and I live in Champaign County in Illinois. Champaign County is just a few counties south of where the emerald ash borer has last been spotted and it is just a matter of time before we get hit. As somebody in the tree care industry I am frequently asked, “What should I do for my ash trees?” I have been looking into 2 particular products, imidacloprid (Merit, Xytect) and emamectin benzoate (Tree-age). My question is what product is most effective and successful; also what are the cost and how to charge a customer for treatments.
Thank you,
Cale Beccue

TrevMcRev

Treevet should be able to help you on this, i think he has some inside knowledge on EAB.

click click... paging treevet.... where are you....

nhendrickson

Cale,

I am a sales rep for Bayer, and I treated for EAB in the Indianapolis area for 4 years prior to this. Both Merit and Tree-age are very successful in controlling EAB. Tree-Age has to be trunk injected. Merit can be trunk injected, soil injected or soil drenched. Merit is also more cost effective. I can answer any questions you have. nikki.hendrickson@bayercropscience.com.

Nikki Hendrickson

Eric Frei

Thanks Nikki,

We have some info on the forum here and seems there's some controversy about applying using Pentrabark, what's your feedback on that method?

Attached Files

eab_insecticidal_management.pdf (172.4 KB, 58 views)

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TreeSpecialist

Long term you may get the best results form applying imidacloprid Merit along with fertilizer injected into the root zone. By adding fertilizer to the mix, I have had the product taken up in a few hours to a few days depending upon the tree, its age, health, time of year, etc.

A late season application may actually give you control into the following spring.

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pcarborist

Tree specialist, I'm curious. How do you know the product was taken up in a few hours to a few days?

TreeSpecialist

The best evidence I have for its rapid work was on a maple tree I treated that had cotton cushion scale (Icerya purchasi)

I had the tree well hydrated 2 days before the treatment. I applied the Merit® along with a variety of organic and slow release fertilizers.

I had scales falling off the tree in 3 to 4 hours after treatment.

I must admit that it surprised me as well when I first tried it. Previously, it had taken as long as 14 days to get results with a simple soil injection of imidacloprid.

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nhendrickson

Ekka,

Merit is not labeled to be used with Pentrabark. Safari is. Safari is also labeled for EAB. Safari is much more water soluble than Merit so it enters the tree at a quicker rate. Safari also leaves the tree at a quicker rate. Merit has a 1 year residual. Merit tends to take at least a month to uptake on medium to large trees. If your tree is infested now, I would recommend a safari treatment followed by a Merit app in the spring to get a faster knockdown and prolonged control. The EAB has a fairly long flight time (Mar - Oct). I would feel better having protection for my tree the entire time. If the treatment is preventative only, annual Merit applications is sufficient.

Nikki

treevet

There are no results showing effective residual into the following season. The current most effective treatments seem to be trunk injections of EmBen (TreeAge) and Immidacloprid. There is to be new research released in the Dayton, Ohio seminar at the end of this month. I am too busy to go but will pursue their info. There has been no new empirical info. to date this year prior to this.

treevet

This IMO is a totally inaccurate post.

treevet

To qualify this a little more, you have based your results on an experiment (?) with no control on a different species of tree with a totally different pest. You offer no scientific evidence and you do not substantiate your statement at all as to the residual into the following year.

nhendrickson

Bayer has a ton of research as to results with Merit and the EAB. It does have a 1 year residual. Tree-age has 2 year on its label. Tree-Age is strictly trunk injection. Merit can be applied via soil drench, soil injection and trunk injection. If anyone wants to see some specific results I can send them some, but I don't want to post internal studies. Look at pricing before making your decision.

Nikki

TreeSpecialist

TreeVet

Your post is true. I haven't performed this method on lots of different pests or hundreds of trees or even dozens of different tree species. Nor did I set up experiments with control groups left untreated. Who has that kind of time?

I have tried late season applications of Merit® mixed with slow release fertilizer products on 6 or 7 species and gotten control on 3 or 4 insect problems into the following spring. The "control" didn't always last the full season.

Could be that the insects wouldn't have hit the trees the following spring anyway.

This may in fact work best in the warmer climates where seasons are longer and dormancy is shorter.

With mild winters, we sometimes have trees put on two growth rings in a single season when weather conditions are just right. In Florida, some claim that trees can even put on 3 growth rings in a year (anecdotal - I have never seen 3 growth rings in a year myself.)

A good many (not all) insect problems I treat are because the tree is stressed and that is what attracts the insect to the tree in the first place. Once treated and fertilized, the stress may be relieved to the point of no longer being attractive to the insect pest.

My experience with scale is that most scale attacks the tree planted in the wrong place - i.e. a northern tree planted in a southern climate or an acid loving tree planted in an alkaline soil. In those cases, I find the scale to be a chronic problem no matter how healthy the tree is.

This forum I thought was about sharing ideas and personal observations. What works for the practitioner in the field is what is important to the customer. Pure research lags behind most problems I deal with because either there is no funding or no interest on the part of researchers.

I have also found that Merit® is being over used and that insects can and do become resistant to it very quickly.

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newguy18

Hey Ekka,we need a smiley eating popcorn for these heated debates.

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old schooler

Garry Brockley

Closest i could get

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treevet

The initial post was looking for the current best products and, I assume, the best method of introduction. Pat (Tree specialist) stated that soil injections with fertilizer IHO was the best answer to the initial post. I have consistent contact with lead researcher at Ohio State U. and I know this an incorrect statement. Trunk injections are current state of the art (EmBen, Immid.). I have used the Safari Pentrabark combo and it has fallen from favor despite lack of invasiveness because of lack of direct hit into conductive tissue that is obviously missing in the exterior trunk spray.

As for your assertion that these two products Merrit (Immidacloprid) and Tree-Age have a 1 and 2 year residual respectively they have not been proven by independent studies to have any more than a 1 year growing season residual despite what mfctr. claims are.

Just received a email a few minutes ago from my friend a lead researcher on EAB and the word is that new data is so current it has not even been published. So everyone that can and cares to should head to Dayton to the seminar I believe on the 24th and 25th (is that tomorrow....I don't know).

Back to the grind....

TreeSpecialist

I re-reading my original post, I thought I was making the observation that late season soil drench with combined with fertilizer is a solution. Don't think I ever said it was the only solution.

I agree that trunk injection - done in the fall - also can give you residual control into the following season. Depends somewhat on the skill of the applicator, the dose, the weather conditions at the time of injection etc.

While I prefer to have trees absorb things through the roots, I also do trunk injections - quite a lot.

Mauget® is also having good luck with residual control into a second season with their injectable product (Imicide®) as well. They are coming out with a new product that combines abamectin and imidicloprid in a single capsule which will be interesting to watch.

I haven't seen anything to suggest how long the "residual control" lasts. Have you?

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newguy18

Thats perfect.

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old schooler

treevet

I also use Mauget Immicide but I did not say there is residual into the next year with a fall injection. In our zone this injection needs to be completed in the beginning of May. The research (independent) at Ohio State U. shows no effective residual into the next year or accumulation or build up of chemicals from late season treatments.

New results will be debuted this week in Dayton, Ohio and I will try and follow up as I cannot go due to a massive storm that hit my region and in good conscience I can't take 1 day off let alone 2 days of this seminar. Maybe someone else will attend and give a summation.

There were misrepresentations in media blitzes of both Safari/Pentrabark and TreeAge according to discussions I have had with my friend the EAB researcher/Entomologist and the phrase "let the buyer beware" comes to mind.

Eric Frei

Thanks, have uploaded.

We in Australia do not have this problem. I do encourage that we remain civil but do pursue information and do listen to anecdotal evidence.

Source: PaDIL
Many of us during our careers come across problems that there's little known about or research done, we over time find our own miracle cures, lets not ignore them however it also doesn't mean like painting wounds it's the best thing either.

We have a metrosideros decline problem right here, been here for some 10 years, not one bit of guff from any scientist, why? Because it's of little importance and no-one cares. So over time I buggerize around doing stuff, find something that works and keep my mouth shut because ..

1/ Some dobbing scumbag reports me to govt for some crap because they're LOSERS.

2/ I got the solution and no-one else has (so they report you to the govt for selling snake oil but buy KFC with it's secret hidden spices and drink Coke who wont divulge it's contents)

3/ Best we all know loose lips sink ships so the less you say the safer you are.

Luckily, this board and the members aren't like that, but I can tell you many are, and you'd be very surprised who they are. So good on you Pat for telling us what you know/do and good on you Dave and Nikki for steering us to more info. I think the more info we get the better and I dare say Bayer would be working with many govt people too.

Over here a lot of research is being done by private companies and not the DPI and CSIRO anymore. And from what I have heard around the traps the govt places do have their nose a little out of joint, of course the stigma is the profitability of the research so they think it will be biased to their product. Even Choice magazine is privately owned and does it's part to test products.

Always be open to many forms of information, you just never know you have the only Holy Grail.

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nhendrickson

I'll be in Dayton tomorrow. Merit products do have a 1 year residual. We can ask Smitley at OSU. Our research at Bayer has always shown this. When I was an applicator (up until January this year). I used to do a lot of fall soil drenches with Merit for leafminer control the next spring. At Bayer we are putting out new BMP's for EAB and fall applications are listed.

Nikki

treevet

One year residual meaning that if you treat in the fall you have an EFFECTIVE residual throughout the entire following year (for EAB)? Sales puffs are part of life.

My source for information is Dan Herms. He will be a speaker there.

I'd love to know if the proceedings from this seminar will be available on the web or elsewhere.

OutofMytree

My head hurts. This technical talk is really hard to follow. Can't I just cut the damn tree down and turn it into firewood?!?!??!

treevet

Then you make Ekka's head hurt as we have to move all this stuff to the "Firewood" thread!