Eli5: what will happen to the emerald ash borders after they’ve killed all the ash trees in the US? Do they starve? Could you successfully plant ash trees after they’ve passed through your area?
In: Biology
The danger is that when there are no ash to infect the emerald ash borers will attempt to infect other species and they might successfully do this. So far it seams like this have not happened but it might if the infection continuous to spread. This is why we are fighting the infection hoping to stop it. Among other we are importing the borers predators from Asia, essentially introducing one invasive species to combat another.
Another thing we are studying is how the ash might itself fight back against the emerald ash borer. Particularly the blue ash have high tanin levels that the borer do not like. We also find some lingering ash trees in areas where all other ash trees have died and the borer have starved out without infecting these lingering trees. It does appear as if these have some defense mechanisms triggered and resemble more like European and Asian ash that is subject to emerald ash borer attacks. We are studying saplings from these lingering ash trees to see if we might replant forests from these and have them resistant to the emerald ash borer.
We could potentially import ash from Europe and Asia. But firstly these are different species of ash then the native American ashes. So we would be eradicating the natural ash. And secondly Europe and Asia is currently under infection from a fungus that causes ash dieback and is killing these ash as well. We do not want to risk introducing ash dieback to America if we can help it. Similar studies of lingering ash trees are conducted in Europe so all might not be lost yet for the world ash population.
The problem with the emerald ash borer is not the insect itself, but the environment that it is in. They are naturally found in Europe and cause little to no damage there, because the ecosystem evolved alongside them. The trees have defense mechanisms and the insects have predators that keep their numbers in check. Outside of this environment, they can grow and populate unchecked because there are no natural predators nor do the trees have natural defenses against them.
They are not strictly exclusive to ash trees and can inhabit other species, but they are drawn to ash. If the ash goes locally extinct, borer numbers will decline but not necessarily vanish.
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