EAB, Arsenic, and Polar Vortex

[badger2]

Emerald Ash Borer infestations will likely intensify due to the recent polar vortex:

1 Feb 2019 This is What Actually Happens to Ash Borers in Extreme Cold
This Is What Actually Happens to Ash Borers in the Extreme Cold

This is an introduced Chinese insect that is used to eating (and using) the arsenic from its host tree, though in the U.S., it's host tree does not provide it arsenic. This 'new' U.S. host tree (Fraxinus) works against the hardening of this beetle's jaws, antipode to arsenic used in the hardening process of lead bullets. Thus the cold renders the lack of arsenic in U.S. tree bark less useful in combatting the insect.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

 

[Toronado3800]

Emerald Ash Borer infestations will likely intensify due to the recent polar vortex:

1 Feb 2019 This is What Actually Happens to Ash Borers in Extreme Cold
This Is What Actually Happens to Ash Borers in the Extreme Cold

This is an introduced Chinese insect that is used to eating (and using) the arsenic from its host tree, though in the U.S., it's host tree does not provide it arsenic. This 'new' U.S. host tree (Fraxinus) works against the hardening of this beetle's jaws, antipode to arsenic used in the hardening process of lead bullets. Thus the cold renders the lack of arsenic in U.S. tree bark less useful in combatting the insect.

That EAB is a thing I've been tracking for a decade. So far between a couple residential properties I've removed 5 ash trees, 2 of which were quite large and nice.

You seem educated on the issue. Have you used any of the treatments with any success?

 

[badger2]

The first thing we notice is the politics involved whereby the disease gets introduced, followed by the physician-pimp with sequential injections into the victim-tree.

The second thing we notice is the ambiguous way this Chinese beetle entered the U.S., especially as reported in the media. The drama unfolds in the Great Lakes region, but the media failed to mention the true history of the genus Agrilus in North America, apart from the the indigenous species. An alien Mediterranean Agrilus species was found imported in timber at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1920.

The chemistry of EAB treatment is something that should be discussed in this thread. A potential truer story of the introduction is the link to the arsenic facility at Deloro, Ontario, which supplied cotton farmers of the South with insecticides. That is perhaps the important connection to the Chinese beetle's success because unlike indigenous species the Chinese beetle had an evolutionary head start, though the media may have duped the reader (and have been duped themselves) into believing that it was introduced at Detroit. In fact, arsenic map for the Detroit county shows it lilly white rather than red (white = lack of arsenic in groundwater), which is dubious enough for our investigations of the origins of the introduction.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Host trees hate us for our freedoms.

 

[badger2]

Thanks for the reply, NC.

Some important links to the tree pimp's pharmacopoeia include systemic applications of imidacloprid:

Thiacloprid / Imidacloprid / Breast Cancer CYP19
Chromosome Missegregation and Aneuploidy Induction in Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes In vitro by Low Concentrations of Chlorpyrifos, Imidaclopr... - PubMed - NCBI
'....we demonstrated in vitro that neonicotinoids may stimulate a change in CYP19 promoter usage similar to that in patients of hormone-dependent breast cancer.'

There are some linking human chromosomes to place in the file:

EAB / Imidacloprid
Emerald Ash Borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) Densities Over a 6-yr Period on Untreated Trees and Trees Treated With Systemic Insecticides at 1-, 2-,... - PubMed - NCBI
'....significant disbalances in chromosomes 9, 18, X and Y, and in insecticide-treated cells has been observed.'

Imidacloprid / Honey Bee Toxicity
Feeding toxicity and impact of imidacloprid formulation and mixtures with six representative pesticides at residue concentrations on honey bee phys... - PubMed - NCBI

 

[RodISHI]

More firewood in the coming winter seasons and planting more Mulberry and Walnut trees.

 

[mamooth]

. Thus the cold renders the lack of arsenic in U.S. tree bark less useful in combatting the insect.

Oh, I get it. It's just a random anti-insecticide rant. Bizarre, as I've never heard anyone say that arsenic should be used to control EAB.

 

[mamooth]

More firewood in the coming winter seasons and planting more Mulberry and Walnut trees.

The common White Mulberry is not native, and it's also an annoying tree with messy fruit and low hanging branches. I'd suggest just about anything else. If fast growing trees are wanted, the native Hackberry, Silver Maple and Box Elder are good candidates.

 

[badger2]

In other words, arsenic from Chinese Fraxinus hardens the jaws of EAB just as it hardens lead in bullet making. This beetle evolved in China where Fraxinus bark sequesters arsenic. According to James A Duke's phytochemical database, U.S. species of Fraxinus are free of arsenic.

The flip-side of potential cancer-causing anti-EAB compounds such as imidacloprid, above, is azadirachtin from the neem tree. Here, one tree's chemistry protects another's against EAB:

Azadirachtin / EAB
Foliar residue dynamics of azadirachtins following direct stem injection into white and green ash trees for control of emerald ash borer. - PubMed - NCBI

Anti-cancer Azadirachta indica
Active intestinal drug absorption and the solubility-permeability interplay. - PubMed - NCBI

Azadirachtin's mode of action includes the inhibition of ferritin and thioredoxin peroxidase. Tirucallol is considered to be the precursor. Unlike tirucallol (mastic gum) from Azadirachta, a member of the Meliaceae family, tirucallol is also found in plants of the Euphorbiaceae family.

 

[RodISHI]

More firewood in the coming winter seasons and planting more Mulberry and Walnut trees.

The common White Mulberry is not native, and it's also an annoying tree with messy fruit and low hanging branches. I'd suggest just about anything else. If fast growing trees are wanted, the native Hackberry, Silver Maple and Box Elder are good candidates.

You grow want you want and I'll grow want I want.

I like my native Mulberry trees along with my black Walnuts and encourage them plus Elderberry and Black Raspberry, plus any other fruit trees to grow wherever they will here. Can the fruit too from the ones we have if I can beat the critters to it.

 

[mamooth]

I like my native Mulberry trees

If you have the native red mulberry, that's awesome. Almost nobody does. It's quite a rare tree.

Can the fruit too from the ones we have if I can beat the critters to it.

I have the same problem. For example, the squirrels have turf wars over my hazelnut bushes, and I've never gotten a hazelnut for myself.

 

[badger2]

Replacing one tree species with another because of this Chinese beetle misses the point. The city of Detroit was once proud of its massive Fraxinus plantings, and unlike media stories, the introduction may not have occurred in the Detroit region. The beetle was being cultured in Michigan DNR labs while still unidentified, and should have brought swifte responses from federal agencies such as the CDC. A deliberate introduction, misinformed (or misinforming) media, and dubious DNR cultivation practices seem to converge in this story.

 

[RodISHI]

I like my native Mulberry trees

If you have the native red mulberry, that's awesome. Almost nobody does. It's quite a rare tree.

Can the fruit too from the ones we have if I can beat the critters to it.

I have the same problem. For example, the squirrels have turf wars over my hazelnut bushes, and I've never gotten a hazelnut for myself.

My peach trees and the apple trees are where I draw the line on letting critters have whatever. The peaches took almost twenty years to get a peach from. I threatened to cut the one down one day after telling it how worthless it was and the next year it made me about a dozen peaches. Perhaps just coincidence but it was kinda funny. The other one doesn't make very many peaches but the ones it makes are the yummiest I have ever tasted. I need to learn how to graft some branches and see if we can get some more like it growing.

In years with lotz of rain and plenty of sunshine too all of the berries and apples are just as sweet as can be.

 

[badger2]

Anti-cancer Azadirachta indica
Neem Limonoids as Anticancer Agents: Modulation of Cancer Hallmarks and Oncogenic Signaling. - PubMed - NCBI

 

[RodISHI]

Replacing one tree species with another because of this Chinese beetle misses the point. The city of Detroit was once proud of its massive Fraxinus plantings, and unlike media stories, the introduction may not have occurred in the Detroit region. The beetle was being cultured in Michigan DNR labs while still unidentified, and should have brought swifte responses from federal agencies such as the CDC. A deliberate introduction, misinformed (or misinforming) media, and dubious DNR cultivation practices seem to converge in this story.

I recall them saying some years ago on a radio show that those beetles hadn't made it across the Mississippi yet but I knew I'd seen one come off our Ash so knew they were in error. Our Ash trees seem to have survived them thus far but I cut the branches back regularly on the one near the house because its a small shade tree for the southern patio area and south part of the house in the summer.

 

[badger2]

They usually alight at the crown of the tree to mate, then travel down the branches and trunk. What happens when the branches and trunk are painted with neem at the time of emergence in an area? Will they be crazy enough to bore into the tree? Can ash trees be protected by ultrasound and neem paintings? Where are any of these experiments documented? The Euphorbiaceae can also be exploited for this purpose.