We're All About Your Life Outside

Green Services: Plant Health Care 

Natural or Traditional Insect & Disease Control

Otherwise known as Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, we offer curative or preventative treatments to suppress damaging insect or disease populations on your valuable trees and shrubs.

Treatments are scheduled throughout the season depending upon what type of plant is present (and its likely pest) and the growing degree days (to determine the insect's life cycles).  These applications generally begin in March or April and progress into typical treatments during the growing season until September for a wide variety of diseases and damaging insects.  Pricing is determined by the diversity and size of the landscape, the location, and the likelihood of damage i.e. what do we need to spray for and how often.

Download a pdf with more detailed information about the differences between our PHC Programs. 


Specialized Injections

We utilize the latest in advanced technologies to inject directly into the cambial layers of a tree with minimal damage for treatments of varying insects and diseases such as  Dutch elm disease, boring insects and bacterial blights.  We can also treat for growth and seed/flower reduction.  


Miscellaneous Treatments

Deer Repellents

Soil Amendments

Specialized Post-Construction Fertilizer Solutions

Mychorizzae (friendly fungus) Root Zone Treatments

Herbicide Applications

Soil Injections for Birch Borer and Leaf Miner  

Tree & Shrub Fertilization

Our special custom blend is a high-percentage, slow-release, zero-phosphate fertilizer with added bio-stimulants. Methodically applied in either the spring or fall, it nourishes and sustains your trees or shrubs. We use a hydraulic system which is difficult to replicate without the use of high pressure pumps and soil injection devices for optimum delivery of the product in large volumes.

Landscape Health Assessment

Our consulting professional examines a single plant or entire groups to determine the best approach for maintaining or improving the health of your landscape.

Download a pdf brochure of our Plant Health Care services. Also view past issues of our GreenWords newsletter, and print pdfs of our Notes from the Arborist information sheets.
 

Invasive (Exotic) Pest Watch

There are some very destructive insects closing in on the Northern New England area. These insect pests are called exotic because they are not native to our country and they have no natural enemies. These three are currently considered to be the most threatening:

1) Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB)

Native to China and other parts of eastern Asia, this insect hitched a ride to the US in crating material shipped to NYC in the 1980s.  It has affected areas in New York, New Jersey and Chicago, IL.  More recently, and of greatest concern to New England, was the discovery of ALB in Worcester, MA, during the summer of 2008.  Removal of 6,000 infested trees began in January of 2009.  Host species include all of the maples, horse chestnut, poplar, willow, birch and elm. 

The ALB will travel up to 400 yards in search of host trees but is more likely to make it to our area in firewood.  Its lifecycle begins when a mated adult ALB chews individual depressions into the host tree's bark where it lays its eggs.  Within a few weeks the larvae emerge and tunnel into the tree, eventually endeing up in the heartwood where they pupate, become adults and exit the tree leaving perfectly round one inch holes, usually in the spring and summer. Eradication is difficult and painful, requiring the removal of thousands of trees in a quarantined area.

2) Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA)

This insect pest appears to have originated in southern Japan and was introduced to the Pacific Northwest in 1924.  Its introduction to the northeast was probably in 1951, first reported near Richmond, VA.  To date it has affected more than 16 states from Maine to Georgia.  HWA is dispersed by wind, birds and other forest-dwelling mammals as well as by the transport of infested nursery stock.

HWA threatens the health and sustainability of the Canadian and Carolina hemlock species.  Hemlock decline and mortality typically occur within four to 10 years of infestation in our northern range.  These parthenogenetic insects (all females reproducing asexuallly) develop through six stages, completing two generations per year on hemlocks.

It is during the heat of the summer the nymph enters a period of dormancy, feeding as temperatures cool in the fall and throughout the winter.  HWA feed on stored starches critical to the trees' growth and long-term survival.  The 'wool' (ovisacs) can be seen from late fall to early summer on the underside of the outermost branch tips of hemlock trees.  Control is possible in the urban landscape utilizing various chemcial pesticides along with horticultural oil and insecticidal soap.  Unfortunately, our forests face the greatest risks.

3) Emerald Ash Borer (EAB)

This exotic beetle from Asia was discovered in southeastern Michigan in 2002.  Like the Asian Longhorned Beetle, it probably arrived in crating materials originating in its native Asia.  Affected states include Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.  Probably the greatest concern to us is the recently found infestation in Quebec.  It is likely to arrive in our area in firewood moved from a quarantined area.  All North American ash species are susceptible.

Emerging females mate and lay eggs individually in bark crevices on the trunk and major branches.  The eggs hatch in about a week with the small larvae boring through the bark into the cambium area where they feed on the phloem and create long, sperpentine galleries.  Larvae continue development through the late summer and into the fall when they begin the pupae stage and emerge as adults in the spring, leaving 3-4mm wide D-shaped holes. Eradication is difficult and painful, requiring the removal of thousands of trees in the quarantined areas.

To report an invasive pest in Vermont or New Hampshire, contact:

Mark Michaelis
State Plant Health Director
617 Comstock Road, Suite 2
Berlin, NH 05602-8927
Phone: 802.828.4490
Fax: 802.828.4591
mark.j.michaelis@usda.gov


Please email planthealthcare@chippersinc.com for more information about any of the services listed on this page.

Click here for a pdf listing of all of our Green Care Services.

"Thank you so much for your wonderful services and care.  You were so wonderful and helpful, kind and knowledgeable about our yard.  We will be happy to recommend chippers to our friends and neighbors.  Hopefully we will be still here next year and we will contact you for services.  Thanks again!" 

Bob & Marianne, Newbury, NH

"Mark was excellent with the service to us!  The crew was unbelievably neat and courteous; we will recommend as well as use your services again." 

Nancy, Barnard, VT