In the last 3-4 years, you may have been driving around and seeing trees that were once nice and green just die. The reason is

because the ash borer disease has hit several states and still is. This has kept professional tree cutters busy and suppressed firewood prices by up to 20% in some areas due to excess wood.

While the above number seems big and it is, there are still plenty of ash trees left around:

U.S. timberland has an estimated 8 billion ash trees, 300 million of them in Pennsylvania forests.

Up to 100 million ash trees may have been killed by the emerald ash borer.

The emerald ash borer is a metallic green, wood-boring invasive insect that feeds exclusively on ash trees. Its larvae feed under the tree bark. They girdle and kill trees within four years of infestation.

The Asian beetles moved rapidly in North America after being first identified in 2002 in Michigan. Emerald ash borers showed up in Pennsylvania in 2007. Pennsylvania initially banned the in-state movement of firewood in an attempt to slow their advance, but gave up the quarantine in 2011. An interstate quarantine remains in effect.

The beetle’s first appearances in the region came in 2010 in Cumberland and Fulton counties, 2012 in Franklin County and 2014 in Adams, Lebanon and York counties.

The pest currently infests forests from Colorado to Vermont and Georgia.

Woodpeckers are a sign of an insect infestation.