As the sky filled with gold, jewel-colored flowers and emerald leaves slowly stretched their stems waking up to the perfect summer day. The calm buzzing of bees mixed with the song of salmon. Slimy frogs croaked and dirty moles tunneled like drills. Minuscule insects crawled inside the rotten logs. A flock of songbirds flew overhead, singing the beautiful tunes that only a bird could sing. Four owls shut their wise old eyes, ready to sleep till the dark cloak of night fell over the earth.

Driller and his flock of black and white striped woodpeckers drilled calmly into the chocolate colored ash trees and chomped on fat beetles. Driller stuck up his ruby red head, grabbed a shiny red beetle and flew into the air. He flew at the speed of a cheetah and made holes in marshmallow clouds. He dove over clear water, "Splash" he made a giant wave that could swallow an elephant. Finally, he landed in his tree named Acer. "Welcome home, Driller" said Acer in his low kind voice."Hi, Acer" replied Driller.

Then, a low buzzing sound filled the forest. It was like a hundred wings flapping in harmony. A lime green cloud flew into the trees. As it came near, Driller saw that it was a swarm of small shiny green bugs. They had six dark green legs, bulging black eyes, translucent wings and a colorful back as hard as an emerald.

Half a dozen landed on the base of Acer's hard moss covered trunk. The insects laid roughly a hundred small pearl like eggs on Acer's bark. The flock of bugs yelled " We are the Chompers. Bite, chomp, and drill." Their voices multiplied as they yelled in unison. One that looked bigger than the others flew to the top of a tall oak tree and said " I am Muncher, the leader of the Chompers. My family is from China but we have been sent out so we will live here. We are here to feed and we will regardless of what you have to say."

In a few weeks the eggs hatched. Driller watched in astonishment as minuscule brown worms broke free from their white prison and traveled into the freedom of life. They squirmed and wiggled as they opened there beady black eyes and pit like mouths. To Drillers suprise, the larvae started to bite into Acer's rough bark. "Ouch" cried Acer, in pain "These bugs are eating me."

Driller flew down to Acer's trunk and started hacking away at the bark. "Peck Peck Peck" Driller's beak chipped the wood like a hammer and went as fast as a race car but the larvae had tunneled just out of reach. "We are Emerald Ash Borers. We are the Chompers. We eat trees." They said in unison. Suddenly, a woodpecker almost double Drillers size came down on the tree. With the speed and strength of a chain-saw, he cut a clean hole into Acer's trunk and pulled five Emerald Ash Borer larvae into his beak.

"Dad, I was doing fine" Driller said in a whiny voice."I just thought you could use some help," said Driller's dad in his calm deep voice."I don't need help," Driller yelled. Driller's dad said, "Every one needs help, that's how you grow." "Well I don't," replied Driller and flew of. "He'll be back soon,"Driller's dad thought as he flew off. With his mind determined, Driller flew off to where the Ash Borers were resting."Get out of this forest Ash Borers," Driller yelled

The one who was called Muncher flew up to Driller and said," Well we won't, there are plenty of ash trees in this forest and our children need to feed." Driller dived at the insects but they dodged and flew off, laughing."So I can't get rid of the adults but I might be able to get the larvae out of the tree," thought Driller. He flew down to the bark of the nearest ash tree and started drilling. After some time he was able to get rid of a decent sized hole in the rough bark of the tree. Inside he could see a large section of catacombs with tunnels that led deeper into the tree.