Ash Tree Removal & EAB Treatment in Des Moines, IA

Ash tree removal and EAB treatment are the two choices every Des Moines homeowner with an ash eventually faces. Green and white ash are common in Des Moines yards and along older streets, and emerald ash borer has since spread through Iowa. Untreated ash in an infested area is expected to die. Doing nothing is a choice too, but it usually ends with paying for a harder, more expensive removal of a dead tree.

How to tell an ash has borers

The beetle's larvae feed in the layer just under the bark, carving winding S-shaped tunnels that cut off the tree's water and nutrient flow. From the ground, the first sign is usually thinning leaves at the top of the crown. Woodpeckers flecking off the outer bark in search of larvae leave pale, blond patches on the trunk. Look closer and you may see small D-shaped exit holes, vertical bark splits, and clusters of shoots sprouting from the lower trunk as the tree tries to compensate.

When treatment makes sense

Insecticides can protect ash trees, and the most common approach for valuable yard trees is injecting a product such as emamectin benzoate into the base of the trunk, repeated every one to two years depending on the product, per the Nebraska Forest Service's comparison of trunk-injection options, for as long as you want to keep the tree. Treatment works best on trees that are still in good shape; as a rule of thumb, an ash that has lost less than about a third of its canopy is a reasonable candidate. Some of these products may only be applied by licensed pesticide applicators. Treatment makes the most sense for a large, well-placed shade tree that would be expensive to remove and slow to replace.

When removal is the better call

Ash with heavy canopy loss, extensive woodpecker damage or bark splitting are past saving. Once an ash dies, its wood dries and becomes brittle quickly, and dead ash limbs and tops break unpredictably. That makes climbing and rigging more dangerous, and it often means an aerial lift or crane has to be used instead, which raises the price. Removing a declining ash while it is still structurally sound is safer and usually costs less.

Wood and replanting

Ash wood burns well, so many homeowners keep it as firewood, but it should be used locally rather than hauled to a cabin or campsite in another region. If you are replacing an ash, plant a mix of species so the next pest doesn't take out every tree on the block at once.

The city has been through the same decision on its own trees. Its 2020 Urban Forest Master Plan reported that ash fell from about 15% of the public tree inventory in 2017 to about 9% in 2020 because the city was removing ash ahead of the borer, and in October 2024 the council approved planting 600 trees to replace canopy lost to emerald ash borer, the 2020 derecho and old age.