Emerald ash borer has destroyed many ash trees throughout central Illinois this summer. Since mid-June, Urbana Arborist Mike Brunk has found around 90 dead or mostly dead ash trees while carrying out tree inspections.

There are around 5,000 city-owned ash trees in Urbana and if the disease continues to spread like this then Brunk thinks that emerald ash borer will destroy all the trees. Brunk was of the view, “Urbana had around 480 parkway (city) ash trees at the beginning of 2015. I predict that we will lose most all of these trees within the next two years”.

In June 2012, the invasive insect species infesting the ash borer was identified in Champaign and since then, it has been killing ash trees by the dozens there. Champaign's arborist, Andrew Lamoreux, shared that since the beginning of July, the city has cut down 39 ash trees and now there are just little more 1,700 ash trees present on city property.

Lamoreux said the emerald ash borer can grow in population rapidly. Every year, more number of adults will lay eggs and between five and eight years, people can witness the rise in the number of insects.

University of Illinois Extension Entomologist Phil Nixon is still positive. He affirmed there is time to save infested ash trees using insecticide applications in Champaign-Urbana. But he said that authorities concerned need to be quick as time is running out.