
Ash trees only, plus the occasional white fringetree. Thinning starts at the very top and works down while the lower canopy still looks normal. Sprouts erupt from the trunk and root flare. Vertical splits open in the bark. Peel loose bark and you find S-shaped tunnels packed with fine frass. Crisp D-shaped exit holes about an eighth of an inch across, flat on one side. Pale patches where woodpeckers stripped bark to reach the larvae. Larvae feed in the cambium just under the bark, severing the tree's plumbing from the inside. Once enough galleries overlap, the crown above starves regardless of soil, water, or fertilizer. Untreated infested ash die — this is not a decline trees recover from on their own. The line between the ones you can save and the ones you cannot is almost entirely how much canopy is still alive the day you first look.
Within weeks. Normally a tree removal job, $400–$1,900 around Indianapolis depending on size and access.
Yes, if caught early and committed to permanently. The standard is a trunk-injected systemic — emamectin benzoate has the strongest track record — applied by a licensed applicator and repeated roughly every two to three years for the life of the tree. Extension guidance commonly puts the practical cutoff somewhere under 30 to 50 percent canopy loss; past that, the tissue that would carry the insecticide is too damaged and treatment fails (the exact percentage varies between sources — UNVERIFIED as a single agreed number). Soil drenches and homeowner products are markedly weaker. Honestly framed, treatment is an indefinite subscription: worth it for a large, healthy, well-placed shade tree, rarely worth it for a marginal one.