Progressive Tree Service

EAB adult emergence is happening right now across the Chicago suburbs. Adults are active, dispersing, and laying eggs under ash bark. If you have an ash tree and haven't started treatment, the effective window is open — and it won't stay open long.

Here's what the treatment options look like at this stage:

Trunk injection with emamectin benzoate is the highest-efficacy option for trees showing early to moderate infestation. The insecticide is injected directly into the vascular system and moves through the tree to where larvae are feeding. Two-year protection per treatment cycle.

Soil injection with dinotefuran acts faster than standard imidacloprid soil treatments and is appropriate when moderate stress is present. Basal bark applications of dinotefuran provide rapid uptake and can be applied immediately.

What treatment is not appropriate for: ash trees that have lost more than 50% crown canopy. At that point, the tree's vascular capacity can't effectively distribute systemic insecticide. A removal assessment makes more sense than a treatment investment.

A professional assessment is the right first step — it tells you whether your specific tree is a treatment candidate or a removal candidate, and which treatment method fits your situation. Don't start with a product. Start with the right diagnosis.

Application timing during active adult emergence is more effective than later-season treatment when larvae are deeper in the cambium. Act in June, not August.

Memorial Day weekend is here — outdoor time, gatherings, yard activities, extended time outside under your trees. It's also the unofficial start of Chicago's peak storm season.

Before the weekend fills up, do a five-minute structural check of the trees over your yard and outdoor spaces:

— Large dead branches that are still attached. These are the ones that become projectiles in a 40 mph gust. They look inert until they aren't.
— Branch unions with visible cracks or peeling bark at the connection point.
— Limbs hanging at angles that don't match their normal position — something shifted.
— Any lean that seems more pronounced than it was at the start of spring.

Prioritize the zones directly above your patio, play area, outdoor dining space, and parked vehicles. Those are the target areas that turn a branch failure from a cleanup problem into an emergency.

If something looks wrong, move the activity zone and schedule an assessment. Trees don't give advance notice before failure. They hold until the load event — wind, rain, ice — and then they don't.

For anything urgent this weekend: 24-hour emergency response at (847) 530-1533.

For pre-summer assessments: schedule at the link. Serving Niles, Evanston, and the North Shore. Have a safe one.

Spring is the best time to assess winter damage — and the most important window to act. Trees that survived January on paper may have taken serious structural damage that won't be obvious until leaves fail to emerge or a limb fails during a summer storm.

Five signs to check right now:

1. Dead branch tips that don't leaf out. Outer branch dieback while interior growth is normal points to winter desiccation or cold injury. Minor dieback can be pruned. Extensive crown dieback signals something deeper.

2. Frost cracks. Vertical splits in the bark, usually on the south or southwest face of the trunk. Rapid temperature swings cause these. They're entry points for decay fungi and boring insects.

3. Heaved root flare. Soil pushed up around the base? Root movement from freeze-thaw cycles in clay soil. A shifted root system means reduced anchoring.

4. Split scaffold branches. Large limbs that cracked under ice or snow load may still be attached and look fine — until they don't. Check the bark at major branch unions for separation or hidden cracks.

5. Delayed or uneven leaf emergence. One side bare while the other leafs out normally often means a vascular issue — disease, trunk damage, or root loss localized to that side.

Any of these warrant a professional look before the growing season accelerates. Waiting until summer means waiting until after the risk becomes active.