Ash Tree Removal in Naperville, IL

Ash tree removal is still one of the most common jobs on Naperville streets and backyards. Green and white ash were planted widely across DuPage County subdivisions, and emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle from Asia, has been killing them across the Chicago region. The larvae feed in the layer just under the bark, cutting long winding tunnels that girdle the tree and starve the crown. Without control, all the ash in an area are expected to die within about ten years of the borer arriving. Some Naperville ash were treated and are still alive; many were not, and the dead ones get more dangerous every year they stand.

Why dead ash is a special case

Ash wood dries out quickly once the tree dies. Within a year or two, limbs become brittle and can snap off without wind; the trunk can break unpredictably under the load of rigging. That changes how the tree has to come down. A living ash can be climbed and rigged like any other tree. A long-dead ash may not be safe to climb at all, and the work shifts to a lift or a crane so no one is tied into wood that might fail. This is why waiting usually makes the job harder and often more expensive.

How to tell an ash is in trouble

• The top of the crown thins and branches die back from the top down.
• Woodpeckers strip the outer bark looking for larvae, leaving pale patches high on the trunk.
• Small D-shaped exit holes about an eighth of an inch across appear in the bark.
• Bark splits vertically, and S-shaped tunnels show underneath.
• Shoots sprout from the lower trunk or the base as the tree tries to recover.

If you are not sure your tree is an ash, look at the branching: ash have opposite branches and buds, and compound leaves with five to nine leaflets.

Treat or remove?

Systemic insecticides, including emamectin benzoate, imidacloprid and dinotefuran, are used to protect ash, usually by trunk injection or soil drench, and some products must be applied by licensed applicators. Treatment generally makes sense for a healthy, valuable ash with most of its crown intact. Once a large share of the crown has died, recovery is unlikely, and removal is the safer choice. We tell you where your tree falls and do not push a removal on a tree that is holding up well under treatment.

After the ash comes down

Ash firewood burns well, and you can keep the logs. Keep wood from the tree on your own property or nearby rather than moving it long distances, since moving infested wood is how the borer spread in the first place. The stump can be ground, and the spot replanted with a different species. Mixing species keeps the next pest from taking out a whole street at once.