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Comment by bevr1337 | Hacker News Reader

Can ash splints still be made from the trees they infest? Do you burn the trees? Very curious to hear more about your experience

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Right now they are just standing dead. I need to do something about that soon.

A basket maker might see an exchange beneficially. Splints are a great resource. I suspect the outer splints to be a little worse for wear.

I didn't know what an ash splint was. I'd guess they are best obtained from a live-cut tree that is still "green"? Mine would all be pretty dry by now.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

A different one, but the spotted lanternfly finally found my grapes. I'm at a total loss for how to protect them. The local university is studying oils and sprays, but they don't have any guidance yet.

The wheel bug is the first predator to realize the lantern fly is a tasty morsel. I hope we can continue coaching other insects to eat the invasives.

From wikipeda, it sounds like wasps are a natural predator. Not sure which native wasps might go for them or how to encourage that.

Chickens would probably eat them but they might eat your grapes as well.

An insect hotel tailored to the native wasps' nesting behavior would probably work best for attracting them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_hotel

In my area we've had the Spotted lanternfly for more than 5 years now, maybe closer to 10. In the first year or two they could be seen in huge numbers. Since then they've waned off considerably. Like last year I don't recall seeing many at all. This summer they are back but still nothing compared to that initial wave. I've seen birds eating them, leaving lots of disembodied red wings in my backyard. Feels like they will reach some equilibrium stable population.

I hope your grapes make it through

I love working with ash. You can do a lot with it if you turn it into lumber before it rots.

They usually just stand there. There are too many to easily take down, and are mixed in with other trees.

The whole east half of the continental US is one large storm away from thousands of fallen dead trees.

Might be off by a few orders of magnitude there. Even 10,000 trees would represent 0.006% of the trees in my state. (Hint: it's the smallest one.)

There are estimates that 13-25% of tree growth in our state has died over the last decade. That's closer to 50 million.

Even a moderately strong storm (only two warning sirens) took down thousands if not tens of thousands of living trees near me.

Weirdly, dead trees can survive better because without leaves they don’t catch as much wind.

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