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pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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Posted by jawbrey TX (My Page) on Fri, Oct 9, 09 at 12:16
| I have a large pine tree in my backyard that has hundreds of holes bored in it. Most of them are oozing sap. There is a flying insect that I've seen on the tree - not sure if it is boring, or laying eggs that are then hatching and doing the boring? The tree otherwise seems healthy. I have several other pines in my yard and this is the only one affected.
Questions:
1. What's doing this?
2. should I be worried?
3. what, if anything, can I do about it?
this is a picture of the bore holes and oozing sap
here is the bug
thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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| link below.. what resin said .. of which variety i do not know.. nor if the winged vermin is related ... try the conifer forum if no good answer here ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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- Posted by jean001 z8aPortland, OR (My Page) on
Fri, Oct 9, 09 at 20:05
| The bug you found didn't make the holes. It's a beneficial wasp. The long thing jutting from its abdomen is its ovipositor (egg-laying device) with which it drills into the wood to locate, and lay an egg in, the borers. Beyond that, I suggest you call a certified arborist or two for an onsite evaluation. With hundreds of holes, it may be too late to save your tree. To locate Certified Arborists, look in the Yellow Pages, under the heading of Trees or something similar. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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- Posted by brandon7 6b (like 7b now) TN (My Page) on
Sun, Oct 11, 09 at 21:14
| A more efficient way to find an arborist might be to check the ISA's website. You'll want to be sure to choose an ISA certified arborist for jobs requiring expertise. I will provide a link to their site below. The website also has lots of great information about many aspects of trees and tree care. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Find an ISA Certified Arborist
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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- Posted by jean001 z8aPortland, OR (My Page) on
Sun, Oct 11, 09 at 23:30
| It was said "A more efficient way to find an arborist might be to check the ISA's website." I used to think so, too. But, not so. At ISA you'll find everyone listed, including municipal arborists and such who aren't supposed to moonlight. If you look in the Yellow Pages, you'll easily find business persons in your own neighborhood. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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- Posted by brandon7 6b (like 7b now) TN (My Page) on
Mon, Oct 12, 09 at 8:23
| ... business persons, but not necessarily knowledgeable arborists. Maybe both ways have there disadvantages, but at least on the website, you know you are looking at some guy that went down to the local hardware store, bought a chainsaw, and is suddenly an arborist. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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| Back to the OP, hundreds of holes in a pine tree means the tree is anything but healthy. You may be able to save it, but don't count on it. Call a certified arborist ASAP, but it is likely too late for treatment this year, and next year it is likely you'll start seeing the effects of so many pine borers/ips/whatever drilling into the tree. Dan |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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| you said: The tree otherwise seems healthy. ======>>> i agree with don .... its anything but healthy ... but being a cheapskate.. i would invest in removal.. rather than spending hundreds or thousands on what is most likely ... a lost cause ... bummer is.. it doesnt even make good firewood.. except for those TX football bonfires .... ken |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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Hard to tell from the pics but the bark looks like a SYP (southern yellowpine) most likely a loblolly or shortleaf. The pitch tubes are a dead ringer for southern pine beetles, of which there are five different species. That tree is a dead man walking, your next symptom will be red top. You will see this no later the the middle of next summer. It will not be immediately noticable from the ground but obvious from the air when the upper needles on the tree start dying due to lack of nutrients being brought up because the beetle larvae have eaten away the cambium layer.
Remove that tree NOW and keep a very close eye on any SYP within 300' of that tree. I would also consider burning off or removal of all leaf litter within that 300' radius as well. I have over 200 acres of planted loblolly and the standard treatment for SPB is removal of all dead and dying trees and everything within 300' of affected trees and if possible a controlled burn to destroy any beetles in the leaf litter.
The life cycle of the SPB is for the adult beetle to lay it's eggs just under the bark of the tree at it's base. The hatched out larvae then proceed to eat their way to the top of the tree through the cambium layer, girdling it in the process. Once the larvae reach the top they emerge as adults and fly down to the base of adjacent trees to repeat the cycle.(hence the 300' radius and removal of leaf litter)
Treatment is not an option in large plantings like mine. It can be done on single trees but it would need to be a systemic insecticide on a large scale for mature trees and even then the damage is usually already done. Prevention is the only hope and that can be problematic. Stressed trees are the most suseptible. I have the worst outbreaks during droughts or following severe winters (ice storms). Regular controlled burns are also recommended as is opening the forest floor with wider spacing between trees. Many of us are also giving a long hard look at long leaf pine which is almost immune to the SPB. I do have about 60 acres of it planted on my homeplace. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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| mcleod, I can tell you from experience that Longleaf and Slash pines are more resistant to beetle attacks. About 5 years ago we had a severe drought and LOTS of Loblolly pines were attacked by both the SYP beetle and the black turpentine beetle, the Longleaf and Slash pines were mostly untouched. After seeing all of those dead Loblolly pines everywhere I started cutting all of my Loblolly saplings. Slash pine does sometimes have problems with fusiform rust cankers, but Longleaf is resistant even to that. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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- Posted by jean001 z8aPortland, OR (My Page) on
Wed, Nov 18, 09 at 0:43
| To locate a certified arborist who will make an on-site evaluation, look in the Yellow Pages under the heading of Trees or something similar. You'll easily find certified arborists in your area. Those who have a certified arborist on staff will have as small logo -- about a half inch -- stating so. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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| As McCleod said, it looks like pine beetles. With that many holes, the tree is probably toast. With so few sap tubes, I wonder if these are exit holes and the tree was infested last year, in which case it should be dying now and there really won't be any beetles left in the tree--they have already left and attacked other nearby pines and this tree is dead. If the beetles just entered this year and you don't have signs of the top dying yet, there might be an outside chance that applying a systemic insecticide to the root zone will kill the larvae and save the tree, but probably not. The beetles carry a blue stain fungus that infects the tree also and clogs the vascular tissue, so what the beetle larvae don't eat is clogged by the fungus, again killing the tree. It may differ with your type of beetle and climate, but otherwise the larvae will hatch out next summer and leave this tree to attack others nearby. Removing the tree completely before then and getting the logs off the property/treating to kill the larvae will help limit additional trees from being attacked next year. Hate to spread such bad news, but I recently had and still have this problem at my family's summer cabin. I tried spraying the trees last fall with the nastiest home/garden insecticide I could find when I first discovered the attack and think it may have helped save some trees, but quite a few were lost. This summer, the remaining trees were sprayed by a professional with a residual insecticide to kill the beetles when they left the infected ones and tried to penetrate those that were still living. I didn't see new damage this fall, but also sprayed with a systemic insecticide this fall |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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But if you look in the yellow pages you get all the chainsaw-happy tree surgeons and you have to sift through them to find who's got a certified arborist.
Many of the arborists on the ISA site that are municipal arborists will, whether they are supposed to or not, come inspect for free or minimal charge. So I have to say I'd try the website first. If you don't get anywhere there, call your local agricultural extension and see if they can either send someone or refer you to someone. If all that fails, then there's the yellow pages but beware there's a reason they pay hundreds of dollars each month to advertise in there. |
RE: pine tree - help identifying boring insect
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| alabamatreehugger, I remember that drought we had to do some cutting whether we wanted to or not. My place is just up the road from you in Grovehill. Slash won't do there but the longleaf will. I'm pretty much stuck with loblolly as that is THE money tree. |
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