What Emerald Ash Borer Did to Ash Trees in Lake County
Emerald ash borer is a small green beetle. Its larvae feed under the bark and cut off the tree's water and food. It has killed most untreated ash trees across Lake County and northern Illinois.
Ash used to be one of the go-to trees for yards and parkways, so plenty of streets had a row of them. That's why the damage shows up everywhere, from the subdivisions where we do ash tree removal in Buffalo Grove to the older blocks here in Libertyville.
Dead ash gets brittle fast. So an ash that's lost its leaves for good should come down sooner, not later.
Is It an Ash, and Is It Dying? Signs to Look For
First make sure it's an ash. Each leaf is made up of several small leaflets lined up in pairs along a stem, with a single one at the tip. Branches and buds grow straight across from each other, not staggered. Older trees have gray bark with a tight diamond pattern in the ridges.
Then look for borer damage.
By the time you can spot most of these from the driveway, the tree is usually well along.
- The top thins out first, with bare branch tips at the crown while lower limbs still have leaves
- Clusters of leafy sprouts shooting out of the trunk or the base
- Bark splitting in vertical cracks, with winding tunnels packed with sawdust underneath
- Small exit holes in the bark shaped like a capital D
- Pale patches where woodpeckers have flaked the outer bark off going after the larvae
We Remove Ash Trees. We Don't Treat or Inject Them
Here's exactly what we do. We cut ash trees down, clean up and haul them off. We don't spray, we don't do trunk injections, and we don't diagnose or treat. If you have a healthy ash on a treatment program and you want to keep it going, that's a different company.
What we can do is look at an ash and tell you what taking it down involves and what it'll cost. If it's already bare, you don't need a diagnosis. You need a date.
If your tree is dead but it turns out not to be an ash, the job runs along similar lines. Our page on removing dead trees of any kind covers that.
Why Dead Ash Removal Gets Harder Every Season
Ash doesn't die and then stand there solid for years the way some trees do. The wood dries out quickly. Limbs snap off at the trunk. Tops break out. Sometimes the trunk itself fails near the ground.
For the crew, that changes how the tree can be taken down.
The lesson is simple. An ash taken down while it's dying is a routine job. The same tree a few years later is a careful one, and careful costs more.
| Where the ash is at | What that means for removal |
|---|---|
| Thinning top, still mostly green | Wood is still sound. It can be climbed and roped like a normal removal. |
| Mostly bare, bark still tight | Starting to dry out. Limbs are cut in smaller pieces and less weight goes on any rope. |
| Fully dead, bark coming off | Limbs can break under their own weight. The plan avoids trusting the tree to hold anything. |
| Dead for years, limbs already dropping | The hardest version. Slowest job, widest drop zone, and a visit before any quote. |
How an Ash Tree Removal in Libertyville Goes, Start to Finish
You text a photo of the tree and your town. We send a written price, or set up a free visit if it's a big one or it's close to the house.
On the day, the first thing we do is walk the tree. We check the base and the main limb unions and tap the trunk to listen for hollow spots. How sound it is decides everything after.
If the yard is open and the tree has a clear lane, it may be felled whole. Most yard ash don't have that room. Those come down in sections: limbs off first, then the trunk in short pieces from the top down.
Over a roof, a fence or a garage, pieces get lowered on ropes instead of dropped. With brittle ash we keep those pieces small and, when we can, anchor the rope in a sound tree nearby so the dead one isn't carrying the load.
Brush goes through the chipper as it comes down, so the yard doesn't fill up. Logs get cut to size and loaded. Then we rake.
That's the short version. Our main page on tree removal in Libertyville has more detail on a standard takedown.
What Ash Tree Removal Is Priced On
There's no price list, because no two ash are the same job. You get one flat number in writing, agreed before we cut, and the quote is free.
If you have more than one ash, tell us. Ash planted the same year tend to go downhill together, and it makes sense to price them as one job with one setup and one cleanup.
For the rest, see how our pricing works.
- Size of the tree. A bigger ash is more cutting and more wood to move.
- Where it stands. Open lawn is the simple end. Over a roof, fence, garage or wires is the other end.
- Condition. How long it's been dead and how brittle it has become.
- Access. Whether equipment can get to the backyard or everything goes out through a gate by hand.
- The stump. Ground out, or cut low and left.
Parkway Ash, Village Rules and Removal Permits
Two things to sort out before the saw starts.
One, whose tree is it? An ash in the strip between the sidewalk and the street is usually the village's tree. If that's the one that's dying, call village hall. It's theirs to handle.
Two, do you need a permit? Many Lake County villages have tree rules, and some want a permit before any tree is removed on private property, dead ash included. Your village may require one, so check with village hall first. That goes for the larger wooded lots where we handle ash trees in Green Oaks the same as for a small in-town yard.
Where the Ash Wood, Brush and Stump Go
Everything leaves with us unless you say otherwise. Illinois keeps yard waste out of landfills, so brush is chipped and the wood is recycled.
Ash makes good firewood, and standing dead ash is often dry enough to burn sooner than fresh green wood. If you want it, tell us and we'll leave it cut where you want it. One ask: burn it at home. Don't haul it to a cabin or a campground. Moving firewood is how tree pests get to new places.
The stump can stay or go. If you want it gone, grinding the ash stump gets added to the quote. Utilities have to be marked first, which is a free call to JULIE at 811.
We don't plant replacement trees. If you put a new one in yourself, pick something other than ash.
Before We Show Up: Getting Your Yard Ready
Access is the thing people forget. On tight lake lots, like some of the ones where we do ash removal in Lake Villa, the only way to the backyard may be a narrow side yard or a path along the neighbor's line. If we'll need to cross next door, have that conversation before removal day.
- Call village hall about a permit and get it in hand
- Move cars, grills, furniture and potted plants out from under the tree
- Unlock gates and point out sprinkler heads, buried dog fence, septic lids and anything else underground
- Tell the neighbor if limbs hang over the fence
- Decide ahead of time if the wood stays, and where it should go
- Keep kids and pets in the house while we work
Ash Tree Mistakes We See Homeowners Make
Waiting to see if it leafs out next spring. A bare ash full of borer holes isn't coming back, and you've given it another winter to dry out.
Having the dead limbs trimmed out of a dying ash. It looks better for a season. Then the next set of limbs dies, and you've paid twice.
Putting a ladder against it or climbing it to cut a branch. Brittle ash breaks where you don't expect it to.
Dropping it yourself. A dead ash can come apart partway through the cut, and the top can snap off and land behind you.
Forgetting the second one. If there's another ash along the back fence, look at it now. It's probably on the same path.
Ready for a price? Text a photo and your town to (224) 944-8652, or send us a message here. We pick up Monday through Saturday from 7am to 7pm, and on Sunday by appointment.
