London may be a proving ground for a new weapon -- an organic pesticide -- in the war on the emerald ash borer.

And proponents of the city's bylaw banning the cosmetic use of pesticides say the move is unlikely to meet opposition.

The Free Press has learned officials with the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) will be at Monday's city council meeting to outline a plan to inject ash trees with a pesticide made from the neem tree to see if that will halt the borer.

The ash tree-eating beetle, first detected in London last fall, has blazed a path of destruction from the U.S. Midwest to Southwestern Ontario.

A CFS spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Gerry Dowding, an official with the federal agency in charge of the fight against the borer, said he doesn't know much about neem or the plan.

"They know it kills the ash borer, but they don't know if neem is injected into the tree (that) it will protect it from (infestation)," Dowding, project manager at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said yesterday.

"I think it's got a lot of potential to be exciting."

Dowding will also attend Monday's meeting to update council on the ash borer found in three trees near the Greenway sewage plant last fall.

With that discovery, a quarantine on ash materials was slapped on a five-kilometre radius of the site, an area with more than 56,000 homes.

It's believed the borer, which has destroyed millions of ash trees in North America and is moving eastward in Ontario from Michigan, arrived on the continent from Asia in packing crates.

The beetle has no natural predators and efforts to stop its spread -- quarantines and mass culls of ash trees to form ash-free buffers -- have failed.

City officials are waiting to hear details of the CFS plan.

"We really can't say anything because we don't know what they want to do," said Jay Stanford, city manager of environmental services.

Dowding said there's no evidence the ash-killer has spread in London.

Thousands of trees have been surveyed and none was found bearing the tell-tale sign of an inverted, D-shaped exit hole in the bark.

"We should have found more trees if it was more widespread," said Dowding.

"Hopefully, it's restricted to those three trees, but that's unlikely. It takes about five years for the population to build up in a tree before it's detected."

Neem isn't a household name, but for centuries it's been recognized in India and other areas for its medicinal and environmental benefits.

A Neem Foundation website in India calls the substance "the best substitute to hazardous pesticides." It notes "pesticides made from neem are products of natural plant origin. They are biodegradable and non-toxic."

Stephen Turner, who chairs London's advisory committee on the environment, said he's been unable to find any detrimental effect of neem on humans or animals.

"This is actually the kind of solution people concerned about chemical pesticides are looking for. It's organic," said Turner, who supported the city's ban on pesticides.

Coun. Joni Baechler, one of council's key promoters for a ban on pesticides, who has also led the fight to protect trees, was impressed.

"I have no problem with neem at all. It's organic," she said.

"You have to consider the potential loss of the city's ash trees and that impact on the environment when you're weighing options."

CFS is collaborating with BioForest Technologies Inc. of Sault Ste.Marie, which developed a system to inject a neem-based insecticide into trees.

"We've had very good results, very encouraging results and I don't think it's far off to say excellent results," said Joe Meating, the company's director of forest surveys and protection.

But Meating said it will take time before the process is proven.

"We know it's killing (borers) in the trees and when the females chew on the leaves there's some indication they lay sterile eggs," he said.

But can the pesticide be used to treat infested trees, or protect others from infestation?

"Those are the questions that need to be answered," said Meating. "It's a pretty scary beast. It takes time."

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IN THE ZONE

- The city has begun spring yard waste pickup for 56,000 households in the quarantined zone but won't pick up ash-tree debris.

- Keep ash waste until city decides how to dispose of it.

- To check if a tree is an ash, look for branches growing side-by-side -- not alternating -- and, in older trees, for bark with deep, diamond-shaped crevices, or for a leaf with five to nine leaflets or fingers.

- If you're still unsure, call the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority at 519-451-2800.