Oak Tree Boring Beetles (Rant)

[Hugh R]

1st World problem, I know...

I have 18 acres in Los Angeles County that is butt up against about 1,000 acres of wild lands. For the last two to three years boring beetles have been killing my California Live Coastal Oaks, see the two picture below.





I've had a few other Oaks removed. The beetles are very invasive. On Thursday, I'm taking a class to allow me to buy the recommended pesticide treatment, which you need to be licensed to purchase and use. You dump a few lbs. of the stuff at the base of the tree and water the heck out of it. The problem is that with 18 acres, I have a few hundred Oak trees. The cost of the treatment chemical will be $thousands, plus I need to water under the Oaks, which you normally don't want to do, but its been so dry here, I need to.

The experts suggest a soaker hose around the drip line of each tree and let it run for 24 hours, shut it off and repeat again in about a month. So I'll need several hundred feet of soaker hose to get around most of the trees drip lines. Can I drag up to 1,000' of garden house up hills and still get any water pressure? Plus, there are thousands of Oaks in the adjacent area that are not being treated at all. On my own property, I have a few acres of dead wood that I can't do anything about, the cost of removal would be more than the value of my house. All that dead wood must have beetles. Some of these Oaks are easily 500 years old.

The chemical treatment will help protect my Oaks, and I'll focus on the trees within a few hundred feet of my house, but beyond that, I'm thinking in the long run I'm going to lose the battle. The Oaks are a big part of the value of the property, and I've been thinking about retiring in 2-3 years, so maybe my best plan is to save them as much as I can and sell the place.

Again, not really looking for recommendations, I'm just frustrated at the whole thing ,but if you have any recommendations, I'd welcome them. I've gotten the best advise from the City Oak Tree expert and the Ranch Manager of the Disney Golden Oak Ranch which is a few miles from where I live. They have 880 acres and thousands of oak trees. When he had ONE tree that was infected, he had it cut down, the roots yanked out the tree taken off-site and buried. He also spent over $250,000 in Oak Tree chemical treatment and an equivalent amount of cost in watering. I don't have that kind of coin.

[wdfifteen]

Live oaks?

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Live oaks?

Dead oaks now.

[pavulon]

Sucks. Oaks are the most magnificent of trees.

[DanielDudley]

Any other Type of tree that you can plant ? Maybe two kinds.

Start putting them in. Time flies.

[ckelly78z]

All of my Oaks and Maples are in good shape along my 1/2 mile of creekline that borders our property. The Ash trees on the other hand, have been decimated by the emerald ash borer bug over the last 3-4 years and I don't know for sure if I have any remaining live trees on my land. I would say that there are between 50-60 dead standing, or fallen over trees that are all between 1 foot and 3 feet thick at the trunk that I have to now pull out of the creek and process for firewood.

It's good free hardwood for burning, but I would rather have the trees still standing and alive.

[Bugsinrugs]

Trees on my property are stressed because of drought conditions. The landscape is changing here in the foothills of Northern California. Dying trees are leading to a bad fire season.

[GWN7]

I can relate Hugh. I'm loosing my 100+ year old elm tree this summer due to Duch Elm beetles. No cure. The city pays for the removal.

[Cajundaddy]

Yep, we are seeing the same thing here in the foothill oaks. The extended drought conditions have stressed the trees and beetles are having a field day. Saw this in the pines up in Big Bear and Arrowhead 5 years ago but that beetle cycle seems to be winding down now.

Water is probably the only long term solution and mother nature sent it all to Boston this year. I am less enthusiastic about pesticides as a short term solution. Effectiveness seems pretty low for oaks in distress and it isn't cheap.

This is a long time friend in the Dept. of Entomology at UCR where they study these pests in great detail. John may be able to direct you to the person who is currently studying this problem and has the most current answers/solutions.
http://www.entomology.ucr.edu/faculty/heraty.html

[Evans, Marv]

Hugh - Is it the Goldspotted Oak Borer? That's what we have to deal with down here in S.D. County. They were supposedly introduced via imported firewood from Mexico and are causing a huge problem. I only have 2.5 acres and only have about 18 oaks large enough to be infested. The local beetle control program cut down three infected trees on my property two years ago, cut them into firewood rounds, covered them w/ plastic & said to leave them for a year. So after that, I did what research I could to gain whatever preventive measures were known at the time - which wasn't much. Your class may give you more updated info, but here is basically what I know (which isn't much) and what I did. First, infected trees will have very small pinholes in the bark where the larvae exit. You can identify infected trees this way. Infected trees will start with limbs drying & dying off at the very tops of the trees. The beetles will only attack large, mature trees. - trees maybe no more than 12 in. diameter won't be affected. For the other large trees I found with the pinholes in the bark, I bought 2 oz. bottles of Merit 75 WP(75% Imidacloprid - $34). Look Imidacloprid up. It can cause problems for bees, but most likely not when used for oaks like I did. I did a "basal injection" around the trees (maybe 6 in. from the base) I wanted to treat. Took my half in. drill with an auger(2/2&1/2 in.) and drilled about 6 holes around the bases maybe 8 in. to a foot deep. Put a table spoon or more powder in each hole (careful to stay upwind - read up about it) & filled them w/ water. Came back for a couple of days & refilled the holes, then left them alone. My trees are fine so far w/ no signs of dying branch tips. I may retreat sometime in the future if need be. Sorry for the length. Email me if you have ??.

[Crowbob]

Up here in Northern Michigan the Emerald Ash Borer, Birch Bark Borer and Oak Wilt are taking their toll. Something is whacking maples, too but the tree people don't really know what it is yet.

[Flieger]

I wish for a swift and complete death to all your beetles, Hugh. (Except for the VW kind)

[Brian 162]

Same thing up here. The City of Toronto has cut thousands of trees due to the emerald ash borer. The city also tried injecting some of the trees to kill the bug. The tree on my front lawn was treated 2 years ago. I don't think it will last. To bad it's around 85 years old.

[Tobra]

Hugh, to get rid of the dead wood, could you get an outfit that sells firewood to come get it?

[Scuba Steve]

How's oak wilt doing in TX? I remember it was supposed to become a pretty big thing around the Austin-San Antonio area.

[Noah930]

Silly question, Hugh (because I have no knowledge on the topic), but how do you know it's wood boring beetles doing in your trees?

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Hugh, to get rid of the dead wood, could you get an outfit that sells firewood to come get it?

This is actually a problem because transporting firewood has been implicated in the spread of boring beetles to new areas. I think it must be fully quarantined and treated first before removing from the property.

[Tobra]

Can you burn it on site?

Noah, you can see the evidence of the damage from the beetles.

[bpu699]

You can buy imaclopramid on DOYOUROWNPESTCONTROL(DOT)COM. Its used to treat termite infestations. Its highly concentrated, and cheap.

I tried to use it to treat a dying oak, and the tree got worse?

This is the same active component that is inthe Bayer Tree and Shrub treatment, which works great. But its $100 a gallon and its diluted. 1 gallon doesn't even treat 1 big tree.

I plan on trying on on some smaller trees.

How can you tell you have borers? Some folks peel back the bark, but that would damage the tree I would think...

I own 5 wooded acres, and a lot of the 150+ year old trees lose branches each year...

Hard to tell the cause...

[Tobra]

If you are able to peel the bark back, the damage is already done, normally the bark is well attached.