pushed injecting poisons (emamectin benoate) in the ground around ash trees in
order to protect against emerald ash borer (EAB). There are several problems
with this. One is that it only keeps the ask trees on life-support for a year
or two at a time, until they must be injected again. This is good for Rainbow's
profits, but an absolutely unfortunate and unnecessary expense for those who
love trees. The ash will begin dying the very year you stop injecting the
poisons.
The worse problem, however, is that this chemical kills bees and other
pollinators as well as EAB. It is true that honeybees don't collect nectar from
the ash trees, as Rainbow claims, but not true that the emamectin benzoate is
harmless to them. What bees DO get from ash trees is the early flowers they
seek for food, often called forage. Since the ash tree absorbs the poison from
its roots and brings it up all the way to the top (which is how it works to
protect against EAB), that is what the bees eat early in the spring and that is
what kills them. Like many environmental problems, this will eventually come
back to haunt our own species, since bees pollinate a very large percent of the
foods we eat. The bee situation has gotten so bad in some parts of China that
humans are now employed at slave wages to hand-pollinate many crops. Let's not
do that here.
The two companies I WOULD recommend are Bratt and A Tree Service. We had truly
excellent experience with both, using Bratt at one point and A Tree Service
later, mostly because of slightly lower prices by one or the other during those
separate times.
BTW, apple scab should not be treated now. The time for that is when the tree
is dormant (during the winter months).
Peace, Charley Underwood, Longfellow