Overview
- Colorado State University entomologists verified the first emerald ash borer finding in Douglas County in Parker and Colorado Springs officials have publicly confirmed a detection, prompting city and state briefings this week.
- Parker officials have started concentric mapping and trapping around the confirmed yard specimen, will remove that tree next week, and have begun injecting ash trees in parks with insecticide.
- The beetle’s larvae tunnel in S-shaped galleries under ash bark, interrupt the tree’s nutrient flow, and cause near-total mortality in affected trees if untreated, with the larval stage lasting up to two years.
- Preventive trunk injections of emamectin benzoate are the primary effective treatment when applied before or in the very early stages of infestation and usually require re-treatment every two years at a cost of roughly the mid-hundreds per tree; heavily infested trees should be removed to reduce local spread.
- City foresters warn the pest could put a large share of the urban canopy at risk, require hundreds of thousands of dollars in public response, and advise residents to identify ash trees, avoid moving firewood, and contact local arborists or municipal foresters if they see signs of infestation.