Bay County Building
515 Center Avenue
Bay City, Michigan 48708-5941

Treatment to Protect Publicly Owned Ash Trees to Occur Between: June 13th to June 30th, 2022

Bay County, Michigan - Ash trees make up a large portion of the public trees that line our streets and fill our local parks. The Bay County Gypsy Moth Suppression Program realizes the value of trees and works to protect these trees from invasive pests such as the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). The EAB lays eggs on the bark of Ash trees and the hatchlings bore into the tree bark. Once inside the bark layer of an Ash tree, the EAB chews through the tree’s water and nutrient-conducting tissues essentially starving the tree. As the tree begins to die the leafy canopy of the infested Ash tree will begin to look thin. That’s why we will be conducting treatments to continue protecting publicly owned Ash trees in Bay County from the invasive Emerald Ash Borer between June 13th to June 30th, 2022.

The Ash trees are treated through the direct injection of an insecticide called Tree-age that contains the active ingredient Emamectin Benzoate which will kill 99% of EAB that feed on it. Since the product is injected directly into the tree through a one-way port, there is no danger of the product leaking out of the tree and affecting non-target organisms. EAB treatment timing is dependent on the leaf development of the Ash trees that will be treated. The Ash trees need to be actively transpiring or moving water through the tree to take up the insecticide. Treatment of each tree is estimated to take from 15 minutes up to two hours. The 2022 Emerald Ash Borer Treatment Project will treat approximately 1,010 Ash trees and will take up to two weeks to complete. These treatments will protect the trees from EAB for three (3) years. The application firm conducting the injection treatment for Bay County will be Kinnucan Tree Experts & Landscape Company.

Specific areas of publicly owned Ash trees included in the 2022 treatment project are in the locations of the Bay County Golf Course, Bay County Medical Care Facility, Bay County Juvenile Home, James Clements Municipal Airport, Breaker Cove Condominiums, and all publicly owned Ash Trees along the streets of the Southeast Quarter of Bay City (East of the Saginaw River, south of Columbus Avenue). Other geographic areas within Bay County containing publicly owned Ash Trees will be treated in future years. Maps showing the general locations with Ash trees to be treated can be requested by contacting our office.

For more information about the program’s Emerald Ash Borer Treatment Operations, or about how to keep your trees healthy, please contact Jeremy Lowell, Bay County Gypsy Moth Suppression Program Coordinator, at 989-895-4195 or lowellj@baycounty.net.

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