spruce oozing video

macrocarpa

macrocarpa

Branched out member
Location
Midwest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq3ucIQdPKA

Norway spruce, oozing like mad. Obviously yellow bellied sap sucker holes all over.

Didn't see any frass.

Aphids all over feeding on sap.

Foliage looks good other than the top blew out in high winds.

Opinions on what might be causing the oozing other than sap suckers and maybe some borer damage? Pitch mass borer? I didn't see any sure evidence.
 
dude we get that on our norfolk pines. spiders get into the bark and its wierd. they like eat the bark and right down to the cambium and the aphids are a secondary infestation to the spiders. those pines oooooz like teen girls watching edward cullen from twilight.

rolleyes4.gif
 
Hmmm. I'm a bit out of my depth on this but just some observations.

The small holes associated with the sap ooze don't look like sapsucker damage I'm familiar with. Sap ooze might be a tree response to whatever made the holes. I think trees may sometimes produce extra sap in response to invasion - to smother the invader. I have no idea what critters you have in your area.
Not sure why aphids would be there unless they are feeding on the sap. No spider is anything EXCEPT a predator so these could not be involved with tree damage. They may be eating aphids but maybe they are young spiders that have recently hatched out of an egg mass and are there incidentally - and maybe taking advantage of an aphid lunch.

The tree might be weakened with all the sap ooze and the blown top could be related.

I associate bluish sap with ctyospora which is common in spruce here.

All I can think of.
 
I see this on so many norways here and they are always loaded with sap sucker holes.

Maybe all the drainage is just from sap suckers? I also need to look into finding out if sap suckers also eat insects such as borers because it would make sense to me that if they do, any potential borer population would be in check naturally.

Regardless the customer wants to be able to use the bench under the tree without being super glued to it, so I'm thinking fertlilization to encourage wound closure and how to deter the sap suckers? Why do they like spruce sap? Seem like it would be hard to ingest but I'm not a woodpecker.

Thanks for the replies
 
Hmmm

Well, I wouldn't want to second guess the types of woodpeckers you have where you are. (Our yellow-bellied sapsucker is Sphyrapicus varius) You are likely meaning a different bird.
Ours makes cool rectangular or round holes in a line like this:


Sapsucker Damage by altacal, on Flickr

These sap wells are maintained so that the birds can return for sap and also for insects attracted to the sap. Our sapsuckers don't appear to excavate wood in order to get insects like other woodpeckers do. Birch and other hardwoods are targets here. I have never seen spruce targeted.

None of this is probably helpful to you though since you clearly have a different thing going on entirely. Good luck with it!
 
Nora, like me you probably have both yellow-bellied sapsucker and the red-naped sapsucker. although they don't seem to attack spruce they LOVE pines (I repaired 5 Austrian blacks yesterday). Another species they hit hard is Mtn ash.
 
we only have the yellow bellied here east of the miss.

I wish it were a different woopecker because that would mean they are after insects/borers and keeping some biological control. But i'm pretty sure its that yellow bellied bastid.

Weird that they make rectangular holes out there. Changes in latitudes maybe.
 
my niece in baltimore had a spruce that pumped out sap like that. fun to prune oh yeah. flow was greatest where the tree bent most in storms, about 40' up. she moved before i could completely diagnose it. Vigorous response to physical damage, was my lame conclusion.

what is the purpose of that wooden structure?
eyeye.gif
 
Ya, it was one of those things I had to bite my tongue. They thought it was pretty crafty.

I sent that vid to a plant pathologist/entomologist at UT. He basically said "looks like woodpecker damage".

Which is probably where most of the drainage is coming from. Norways just don't do well here. I think its too far south and although we are a little higher in elevation, they still crap out. So do colorados. untreated hemlocks all dying, white pines blowing over, what evergreens will we have left? leylands, ha.
 
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