Infestation

What can I do?

I received this from a friend who lives in NJ.

He asked that his name be kept private.

His story is written below.

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I love my home and my neighborhood. I’ve lived there for just over 20 years. I do my best to keep my property healthy and up to date on all the maintenance. I have found that keeping things healthy with preventive care and maintenance actually works.

But over the past year or two there has been an infestation of bugs in our neighborhood that supposedly came from overseas.

No one knows for sure but that is the rumor. We have been told the bugs are very destructive to our trees and other foliage.

Almost daily for the past 20 months I see the local media reporting about higher and higher numbers of these bugs. Many of my neighbors appear freaked out. I see them with bug spray and putting sticky tape on trees. While I have not seen any true research data that proves those interventions work, I see more and more of my neighbors trying these interventions.

So far though while I have seen the bugs I haven’t seen much destruction of any trees or property. Yes I have seen lots of trees with bugs and many of the leaves looked a little haggard but I haven’t seen any more dead trees or property damage than any prior year.

Our township now wants to treat our entire community with this new bug spray that is supposed to be protective. It’s two treatments about 3-4 weeks apart. Problem is the spray is fairly new and has never been used in a large community like this before. It is a new type of spray that has not really been used outside of a laboratory.

The township says it’s safe, but there is no real long term data to support their statement. They say it’s not mandatory but they are heavily pushing that everyone allows them to treat their property. Many people have welcomed the help and had their property treated starting back in January 2021. There was actually an initial waiting list to get the properties treated. By March-April 2021 it seemed like the bug outbreak had subsided. So I thought all was good and that was the end of this.

That lasted until about September 2021 when the outbreak returned and intensified. I'm not really sure that it intensified or perhaps that more testing for the bugs was made available. More testing usually will show more cases. If you don't test, don't expect to find anything. But the more you test, the more you find.

Strange thing I noticed.

The properties that the township previously treated had just as many or more bug infestations than properties that were not treated.

But for some reason the township authorities and local media began to blame the people who did not want the new treatment. They began to shame and blame the owners of the untreated properties even though they did not appear to have problems from the bugs.

The township then began to offer booster treatments to the properties that were already treated. They said the booster would take care of the problem. Not to worry. If the first two treatments did not fix the problem, continue with the same treatment again. It should start working. The magic number was three.

A strange thing others started to notice but were hesitant to discuss openly. The trees of the treated properties were now getting other diseases not related to the bug infestation. Many of these diseases the trees had many years before and recovered from, but now those diseases were returning. Some of the other property owners were wondering if the new treatment could have led to a recurrence of these other health issues of the trees. But the township authorities said it couldn't be and asked that they stop reporting those issues as they did not want to gather that data. They were too bust treating properties with the new treatment. The township stated these recurrence of health issues were just random coincidences and not to waste their time. But if you talked to many private lawn service and property management professionals, most would tell you that there were way too many coincidences. They said this privately because if they spoke out publicly the township hinted that they could lose their business license.

So to keep their jobs safe they kept much of what they were seeing to themselves.

My neighborhood which used to be so friendly, inclusive and respectful of each other’s views has changed. Neighbors are no longer speaking to each other. Community events are divided between treated and non-treated properties with little interaction between the two. We used to have neighborhood block parties but no more. A great divide has occurred as a result of a disagreement on how to keep a property healthy and well managed.

All this divide because of a bug infestation??

I noticed the properties most affected by the bugs seem to be the older properties with older trees. Unfortunately this is again regardless of whether these properties were treated. Properties that have been treated that still get infested are blaming the untreated homes for the continued infestation, even though the untreated properties are free of infestation and appear healthy and very well kept.

How does an uninfected property spread an infection to another property if they were not and have never been infected?

The property owners that were infested never seem to ask why the treatment strongly recommended by the township does not appear to be working. It’s like they have this all knowing all trusting belief about the benefits of the experimental treatment.

Where has the critical thinking gone?

What do they call it when you do the same thing over and over again yet expect different results?

Even with all the township pressure and media hype, the untreated properties continue to remain untreated. It does not appear like they will change their minds. I have seen some that eventually do get infested but they appear to recover much faster than the treated properties.

The township still wants every property treated even if they already were infested and recovered. They are putting out trial balloons in local papers saying that untreated properties may begin to lose some township services. I’m not sure that is legal but that is not stopping them. It seems to be more about swaying public opinion than true science. Political and Social Science over Dendrology (the study of trees or tree science).

Strange thing though that many have noticed. Once a property has been infected and then recovers, whether treated or not, that property has not gotten re-infected. It's like the trees learned from the infestation and are now naturally immune. But the township still wants to use the experimental spray on those properties.

I just heard that the township may start advising homes to get a second booster to try and slow down the infestation. That would make it 4 treatments overall. So the magic number now became 4. Do they realize that the first three treatments not only haven’t slowed down the infestations, but there are actually more properties being infected in 2021 since the spraying began than in 2020 prior to any treatments? Will there soon be a fifth then a sixth treatment required?

I see the disconnect. But for some reason many of my neighbors do not. Even many tree professionals appear to be going along with the townships strategy of getting booster after booster treatment. It’s almost like the beginning of a dystopian community.

It’s like independent thinking has gone on holiday.

I don’t know exactly when this will end. My guess is it will end when enough properties have been infested and recovered, as they don’t get infested a second time. Then the cases of infestation will decline for good.

But will my neighborhood ever recover from the division this all caused?

I hope my neighbors who have taken all the treatments and boosters are ok. It would be horrible if more “coincidences “ of health issues that occur after a spray treatment kept occurring to their properties.

BTW- there are other treatments for these bugs other than the experimental spray. But for some reason the township and the media don’t want anyone using the other treatments even though they have been around for decades and are relatively inexpensive. They rarely cause other problems or coincidences. But the township doesn’t want them used and has even tried to prevent stores from selling those older safe treatments to the homeowners. I can’t figure out why?

It’s like the township only wants one type of experimental spray treatment used that happens to be very expensive compared to the older treatments.

So this is where we are now.

I’m hoping the township comes to their senses and starts advocating for an all of the above safe treatments plan. Especially as I have heard that these bugs were rampant in another county and that county used the all of the above strategy with great success.

So far my property has not been treated and not been infected. But I have been taking great care of my property over the years. Lots of organic and natural fertilizers, proper watering and the healthy balanced percentage of lawn and tree food.

Keep the terrain healthy with prevention.

That’s probably why my property has remained safe so far. So I plan to continue that strategy as it appears to be working much better than the townships multiple treatment and booster strategy. If my property does get infested, I will use the older tried and true safe treatments at that time as that is what I have seen many others use with success.