Washington, DC (NAPSI) - There’s good news for homeowners who have ash trees on their property. There is a simple way to protect this valuable tree.

In addition to creating a beautiful landscape, the benefit from a mature, healthy ash tree is about $217 a year in increased property value, air quality, cooling in summer, reduced heating costs and more, according to the National Tree Benefit Calculator.

However, they can be vulnerable to what some consider the most devastating of all invasive insect tree pests of the last 20 years—the emerald ash borer (EAB), a beetle native to Asia that was introduced to North America in 2002. EAB larvae live under the bark of the ash tree and feed on the tree’s transport tissue, starving the tree of nutrients.

EAB has already destroyed tens of millions of trees. In fact, most trees with EAB die in a few short years after the onset of symptoms.

Fortunately, one particular trunk injection treatment from Arborjet, administered by a professional applicator, will protect ash trees against EAB for up to two years, in many cases even if the trees are currently under attack.

Professionally applied trunk injection treatments cost a fraction of what tree removal and replacement does, which can be as much as $1,000 per tree.

Homeowners can look for a number of signs to identify EAB in ash trees, including a thinning canopy (upper layers of leaves), branches sprouting low on the trunk, bark that peels easily with lines appearing underneath, small D-shaped holes in the bark, and increased woodpecker damage.

For more information, visit www.arborjet.com.