Today....

climbingmonkey24 said:
Oak I believe. I think gypsy moths or caterpillars one of the two or both damaged the tree. Had no growth on it.
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The gypsy moth caterpillar has been absolutely decimating red oak in my area. It is an odd sight, driving down the road in June and seeing no leaves on the oak trees. They are worse this year than any year I can remember.
 
Besides drilling are there other way to determine if a tree is rotted in the center like that at the base? The rest of the trunk while not one hundred percent didn’t have heart rot like that.
 
Bendroctanus said:
It seems the case for a lot of pests and pathogens.
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We’re losing tons of oak to a few year combo of browntail moth and wintermoth. Pretty depressing to see everyday. As well as hemlocks with HWA, arrived in Maine 2009 and seeing lots of mortality/rapid-decline. Fewer trees and more developments. I’ll stop
 
Serf Life said:
We’re losing tons of oak to a few year combo of browntail moth and wintermoth. Pretty depressing to see everyday. As well as hemlocks with HWA, arrived in Maine 2009 and seeing lots of mortality/rapid-decline. Fewer trees and more developments. I’ll stop
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We are losing Ash very quickly, probably 30% of our work is removing dead Ash at this point. Unfortunately looks like the Oaks are next, almost every Red Oak we prune these days shows signs of Bacterial Leaf Scorch, so I’m afraid when we run out of Ash to remove it will be time to take down all the Oaks.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
Besides drilling are there other way to determine if a tree is rotted in the center like that at the base? The rest of the trunk while not one hundred percent didn’t have heart rot like that.
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To the extent of my knowledge, there are digital sounding devices that will record on a graph the resonance within the wood. Pretty sure they’re like $20K too. I’ve only heard of consulting outfits using them. I’m not aware of anything like that on a budget. I will say that I’ve heard it’s the shell wall that holds most of the structural integrity and something like 30% still retains its strength.
 
Bendroctanus said:
To the extent of my knowledge, there are digital sounding devices that will record on a graph the resonance within the wood. Pretty sure they’re like $20K too. I’ve only heard of consulting outfits using them. I’m not aware of anything like that on a budget. I will say that I’ve heard it’s the shell wall that holds most of the structural integrity and something like 30% still retains its strength.
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There are fancy devices out there, like resistographs, which will tell you what’s going on. Also a small core drill will work and not cause any notable damage to the tree. And finally, the good old fashioned mallet works too - thump your way around the trunk and listen, hollows sound different from solid wood.

A hollow tree is not necessarily unsound, around here we use the rule that 2” of wall thickness for every foot of diameter is sufficient to consider a tree to be sound.
 
Reach said:
We are losing Ash very quickly, probably 30% of our work is removing dead Ash at this point. Unfortunately looks like the Oaks are next, almost every Red Oak we prune these days shows signs of Bacterial Leaf Scorch, so I’m afraid when we run out of Ash to remove it will be time to take down all the Oaks.
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I’m not exactly the authority where I am in the Midwest, far from it actually, but I’ve been seeing a lot of Hypoxylon canker in the Oaks around here. Many large ones. I’m newer to the area so I’m only starting to piece together what may be the cause. There have been some bad drought years within the last decade and it seems to me that this is the result. I get a lot of calls with the same story, “My oak tree was fine up until 5 or so years ago and it seems like it’s dying more each year. I had someone give it iron injections and that seemed to help but it just doesn’t look healthy.” Sad to say, in the year and a half that I’ve been here, I’ve probably removed a dozen or more oaks that I’m like 98.76% sure had Hypoxylon.
 
Bendroctanus said:
I’m not exactly the authority where I am in the Midwest, far from it actually, but I’ve been seeing a lot of Hypoxylon canker in the Oaks around here. Many large ones. I’m newer to the area so I’m only starting to piece together what may be the cause. There have been some bad drought years within the last decade and it seems to me that this is the result. I get a lot of calls with the same story, “My oak tree was fine up until 5 or so years ago and it seems like it’s dying more each year. I had someone give it iron injections and that seemed to help but it just doesn’t look healthy.” Sad to say, in the year and a half that I’ve been here, I’ve probably removed a dozen or more oaks that I’m like 98.76% sure had Hypoxylon.
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Wow. That’s terrible! We see Hypoxylon on occasion, but usually on a rare, isolated tree. It’s far from common in this area, fortunately. There’s enough other issues in this area though to make up for it.

I’ll trade you some Hypoxylon for a box of Spotted Lanternflies!
 
Reach said:
Wow. That’s terrible! We see Hypoxylon on occasion, but usually on a rare, isolated tree. It’s far from common in this area, fortunately. There’s enough other issues in this area though to make up for it.

I’ll trade you some Hypoxylon for a box of Spotted Lanternflies!
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I’m hearing about the lantern flies but thankfully have not encountered them yet- might not this far south… but time will tell.

Are they actually killing trees? Are you seeing any host preferences ?
 
Reach said:
Wow. That’s terrible! We see Hypoxylon on occasion, but usually on a rare, isolated tree. It’s far from common in this area, fortunately. There’s enough other issues in this area though to make up for it.

I’ll trade you some Hypoxylon for a box of Spotted Lanternflies!
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Isn’t that an illegal trade? ;p
 
Neill said:
I’m hearing about the lantern flies but thankfully have not encountered them yet- might not this far south… but time will tell.

Are they actually killing trees? Are you seeing any host preferences ?
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I hope you don’t see them, but I’m afraid eventually you will. They’re too prolific to not spread far and wide.

They don’t usually kill trees directly, but indirectly- they secrete vast quantities of clear, sticky, sweet “honeydew” which grows Sooty Mold on everything it touches. Whole trees turn black, and the leaves drop because they’re so shaded they might as well be dipped in tar.

When these pests move in to a tree, thousands will take up camp and start feeding, dripping honeydew so badly it looks and feels like it’s raining under the tree.

Their favorite tree is Ailanthus (it’s from the same area they are, so it’s a taste of home I suppose), but they like everything with a sweet sap, especially Maples and grapes. The longer they’re here though, the wider the variety of hosts we are seeing.
 
Reach said:
I hope you don’t see them, but I’m afraid eventually you will. They’re too prolific to not spread far and wide.

They don’t usually kill trees directly, but indirectly- they secrete vast quantities of clear, sticky, sweet “honeydew” which grows Sooty Mold on everything it touches. Whole trees turn black, and the leaves drop because they’re so shaded they might as well be dipped in tar.

When these pests move in to a tree, thousands will take up camp and start feeding, dripping honeydew so badly it looks and feels like it’s raining under the tree.

Their favorite tree is Ailanthus (it’s from the same area they are, so it’s a taste of home I suppose), but they like everything with a sweet sap, especially Maples and grapes. The longer they’re here though, the wider the variety of hosts we are seeing.
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At least there’s a silver lining. Ailanthus is out of control as well. But as with most of these invasive pests, the baby gets thrown out with the bath water.
 
Regarding using a mallet to sound for hollows, i also like to lay my hand on the trunk as I'm sounding. You can feel a difference in the vibrations between sound wood and hollow wood.

Regarding gypsy moth, back in the late '70's and early '80's we would see 3 year cycles, 3 years of population building to collapse. Then cycle again. From what i have heard from central PA, you are in year 2. Good time to get into PHC and specialize in gypsy moth.

Regarding lanternfly, if they could be contained, i believe they could solve the Kudzu problem in the south. I have offered the forestry comission to import some from PA, but they declined the offer.
 
I did my first cat rescue Sunday evening. The cat had been in the tree three days, and the owners were getting worried.
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The cat was quite happy to see me, and offered little resistance to being put in a carrier and lowered to the ground.

Since I was already in the tree, I also took care of this hanging dead limb higher up.
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I'd jokingly told my wife first thing Sunday morning that it was going to be one of those days when nothing went wrong, and that's exactly how it turned out.
 
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