As my friend and I took our fitness walk this morning, we came across a village worker spray painting a street tree. An ash tree. With visible dieback. And he was examining holes in the bark and talking excitedly on his cell phone. My town, Lake in the Hills, is next to Algonquin, which has had confirmed cases of Emerald Ash Borer. So I just had to stop and ask, did you find Emerald Ash Borer on this tree? He was a younger guy, but he knew his stuff. He showed me the borer exit holes—and they were filled with the empty pupal skins of the lilac/ ash borer. The trunk of the tree had dozens of papery pupal skins of lilac/ash borers that had emerged as adults and left the building, so to speak. He then peeled away the bark to show me the kind of damage the lilac/ ash borer does—it damages the tissue that conducts food and water and makes gnarled patches on the trunk. EAB has different looking exit holes, he noted, and different damage patterns. He was very kind to give us this impromptu show-and-tell, so then I felt obligated to explain that I was a Master Gardener, but had little experience with lilac/ ash borers and no experience with EABs. He was so cute (and kind of hunky) as he said, "More than happy to help." As we walked away, I knew that poor little ash tree was going to bite the dust. Yet selfishly, I was glad it wasn't EAB, because now my own street-facing ash would be okay—for today anyway.

— Michelle Byrne Walsh