Do you have a pesticide for emerald ash borer as we are losing ash trees that are 15-80 years old?
We’ve got a couple of options.Since ash borers will penetrate deep into the tree, use a systemic like PROTHOR for sure. This product should be mixed with water and then used as a soil drench around the base of the tree inside the drip line. Prothor will take 3-6 weeks to get sucked up and distributed throughout the tree. Once distributed, it will kill anything feeding on it deep enough to ingest the active.
This short video (less than 60 seconds long) gives you a brief summary of all the detailed information below. As you scroll down, you’ll see everything you need along with “add to cart” buttons for ordering directly from this page:
If you would like a more “in depth” video presentation, this next one is longer but more detailed:
Mix 1 oz of Prothor in 3-4 gallons of water (a five gallon pail is well suited to make the mixture and treatment) and use the full amount for every 10 inches of tree width. Create holes around the tree using 5-10 holes for every pail you mix up. Holes can be made with a pick axe or metal stake like rebar. Slowly pour the mixture down into the holes making sure it goes down into the soil so it can be absorbed.
Once applied, the treatment will be absorbed over a 1-2 month period (depending on the time of year when you treat). And once in place, the treatment will protect the tree from any kind of bark, trunk or foliage pests like emerald ash borers.
Plan on treating once a year and though you should focus on infected trees, it would be wise to treat any tree you’d like to prevent from getting the problem too.
Since infected trees will be releasing special pheromones used to attract more borers, the affected tree will act as a “beacon” luring beetles from the immediate area to your yard. To keep them off your trees, spray the exterior bark with MAXXTHOR EC.
As an oil based active, this product is both invasive and repelling by nature. Once the bark absorbs the treatment, it will kill active beetles and keep new ones from wanting to land. Treat infected trees and any you want to protect using a mixture of .5 oz per gallon of water.
To get the most of your treatment, add SPREAD-X BOOST to your tank mix along with the Maxxthor. Boost is an adjuvant, also known as a wetter spreader or spreader sticker. It basically makes water and the mixture more “slippery” so you get better coverage. Treatments will spread 2-3 times wider and penetrate deeper. This is super important when spraying trees. Boost will help the Maxxthor get “into” the bark that much deeper and as a result, residuals will be longer and the immediate impact your treatment will be magnified.
The following short video summarizes why Boost can help deliver your treatment better.
Add no more than the rate you’re applying the Maxxthor so in this case, if you’re adding 2.5 oz of Maxxthor to the hose end sprayer, add 2.5 oz of Boost too before adding water. If you’re adding Maxxthor to a pump sprayer at the rate of 1 oz per gallon, use 1 oz of Boost.
And don’t forget to add Boost to your soil drenches with the Prothor. Boost and Prothor, as well as Joy Juice, are all compatible and the Boost will get the treatment at least twice as deep. This insures the actives will be “in” the tree that much faster with Boost speeding up the time it takes to get the actives to the roots for absorption.
Use any standard PUMP SPRAYER to make the application and plan on using 1/2 to 1 gallon of mixed spray per tree. Reach as high as possible; 10-15 feet is the minimal height you need to reach.
If you have a lot of trees to treat, consider using a good HOSE END SPRAYER. Using our sprayer, you’ll need to add 2.5 oz of Maxxthor EC and then enough water to fill the spray tank up to the 5 gallon line. Next, hook the sprayer to your garden hose and spray out the contents. This mixture will provide 5 gallons of mixed solution; add 5 oz of concentrate and fill the sprayer to the 10 gallon line if you need 10 gallons of mixed solution.
For highest reach, get one of our NO PUMP SPRAYERS. This vunique sprayer is simple yet very good, easy to use and one of our “favs” for applying insecticides to your homes exterior and landscape (its too powerful for use inside).
Ideally suited for reaching heights of 40+ feet, it has no moving parts other than the valve you hold for spraying and the adjustable brass “bullet” nozzle.
This sprayer is essentially a tank that can hold water, chemical and up to 130 psi of air. The top lid has a clamp and rubber gasket that seats on the “inside” of the sprayer so as you fill it with air, the seal will naturally remain in place, nice and tight.
The top has 3 “ports” (pic below). The port to the far left is used to fill the tank with air. Using any electric air pump (the kind you would use the fill tires on your car), you can safely pressurize this sprayer up to 80 psi. The tank is rated for up to 130 lbs but the relief valve will only allow you to fill it to 80-90 psi before it starts to release. This happens as a safety precautionary action.
For normal use around the home, 50-60 psi should be enough for you empty the liquid from the 2.5 gallon tank assuming you only add 1 gallon of mixed product. True, the sprayer can “hold” 2.5 gallons of liquid but you need room for the air. Our tests show that 50-60 psi will pump out an entire gallon of spray allowing you to reach 25-30 feet heights.
For reaching 40+ feet or higher targets, pressurize the sprayer to 80 psi and again, mix up only what you plan on using and no more than 1 gallon of mixed solution at one time so the tank has enough room left to store all the needed “air”. One charge of 80 psi is enough to get the entire mixture to spray out so you don’t have to be concerned about constantly recharging.
The 5 GALLON NO PUMP can hold over 2 gallons of mixed material and can perform equally as well.
Remember, YOU WILL NEED AN AIR COMPRESSOR POWERFUL ENOUGH TO FILL THIS SPRAYER!! WE RECOMMEND ONE THAT CAN DO AT LEAST 100 PSI.
WATCH THIS VIDEO ON THE “NO PUMP” SPRAYER FOR OPERATIONAL DETAILS
Lastly, if you have a lot of holes in the trunk, inject FS MP AEROSOL to ensure you reach the feeding borers not deep enough to be affected by the Prothor but deep enough to avoid the Maxxthor EC.
FS MP is oil based aerosol and comes with an injection straw so you direct the spray into the holes where it will move laterally between the ask exterior bark and the cambium.
Borers may spend their time in the sapwood or cambium in the trunk so they can be hard to reach. But FS MP will penetrate throughout the hole reaching developing larvae and killing them on contact.
Give us a call if you need more help. Our toll free is 1-800-877-7290 and we’re open 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Mon-Thur; 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Friday and 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM Saturday, Eastern Standard Time.
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