Before Doug Tallamy became the naturalist du jour, he was an entomologist. People in this field of study learn about insects for the purposes of killing them because they receive funding from ‘Big Agriculture’. Well, he’s come back home, evidently. According to the August of 2019, NCNPS newsletter, a certain Catherine Bollinger writes, “I was told by local birders that Dr. Tallamy is now advocating insecticide treatments to save ashes from total annihilation.” This despite Tallamy’s claim that ash trees are munched on by 150 species of lepidoptera.
But first…some government insanity. You are looking at a close-up of an EAB sticky trap. In order to monitor for EAB, “the powers that be” hang them in ash trees…and kill a boatload of other insects at the same time. Someone should have been fired over this killing decision to put up these things. Even if they found an EAB, they weren’t going to actually do anything about it; they just wanted to know if it was there. When you work in the field of wildlife, contempt for it can be right around the corner. This ash will, thankfully, be allowed to enter the realm of ‘Snagdom’. Some may opine, “If only the advice of professionals had been followed, this tree could have been saved.” Well, we can thank the Lord that no ‘expert’ was around to recommend treatment, which entails regular pesticide injections. Hell, there might even be a gov’t subsidy to help you and your ash. BTW, your share of the national debt continues to accelerate in the wrong direction but, “Hey, if it saves just one ash tree,…” Mindless drivel. This leaf-footed bug will be one of the many casualties of the war on EAB. Ash injecting will save the tree, but kill anything that eats it. Can it be true that ecologist, Doug Tallamy, is seriously for this? Letting the tree die gives leaf-eaters (who may visit an ash) a new lease on life because the ash won’t be around to attract them. Most of those insects are generalists, so it’s not as though they need an ash. They can eat something else and still be able to procreate. People and governments that inject aren’t just poisoning insects. All sorts of animals will consume poison-infused ash tree seeds. Also, your local authority that does fall leaf collection may have a program that sells it back to the public each spring in the form of mulch and compost. This organic material will likely have ash leaves with the pesticide…no extra charge. You don’t want to be adding poison to your flower and vegetable garden soil. Soil is your gardens (and the natural worlds) ‘temple’.
