| Start A Lawn Care Business > Starting a Lawn Care Business > Emerald Ash Borer and your Lawn Care / Landscaping Business |
A Beetle can be a Boon
for your
Lawn Care and Landscaping Business.
Trimming and cutting
trees affected by the Emerald Ash Borer can
bring your lawn care business extra money during 2009.
Hello everyone.
This year (2009) as part of my continuing education within the lawn care and
landscaping industry, I am taking horticulture classes. The staff of
Start A Lawn Care Business continues to learn about the lawn care industry
not only to further our own education but also to make sure the
Lawn Care Business Program
is the most up-to-date and the best information for new and existing lawn
care business owners.
This week, we had a great lesson on the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidea)) and its effects on Ash Trees in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Infestations are also occurring in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
This beetle is generally transported over long distances primarily due to transportation of infested ash nursery plants, firewood, and ash lumber products. Adult beetles are 7.5 to 13.5 mm long and they are slender and elongated in shape. Males are smaller than females and, unlike females, they have small hairs on the ventral sides of their thorax. After hatching, larva feed by chewing through the bark of the ash tree. Larva feed on phloem for several weeks. The larva create serpentine corridors within the bark. As a larva grows its corridor becomes larger to allow passage of it body. Pupation begins in late April or May. The adults emerge after 1 or 2 weeks through a D-shaped exit hole from the bark. This feeding action disturbs the flow of nutrients and water within the tree. Eventually, the entire tree will die.
Knowing the signs and symptoms of an infected ash tree is important to your lawn care business. Not all lawn care businesses are involved with tree trimming. However if you are in the regions listed above, learning more about the Emerald Ash Borer can give you ideas about how to better serve your lawn care customers. You can then advise them on the proper procedure of treating their trees.
You can learn more about
this pest by visiting your local
extension office or the USDA Forest Service at:
http://www.na.fs.fed.us
Hundreds of similar tips to help your lawn
care business GROW are
found in the pages of the
Start A Lawn Care Business Lawn Care Business training program.