maple shedding

[Charlie Knighton]

I have a maple tree that is shedding bark......planted in 60's......most likely sugar maple............sun comes up on the other side of tree

is there anything to worry about?????????????

 

[john lucas]

I'm not even remotely an Arborist or anything close. However working at a university for 30 years as a photographer and woodworker I saw a lot of trees come down over the years. Almost always I would see bark coming off in spots and within a year or two they cut the tree down. That's just my perception and it could be totally wrong but I was on campus today for a visit and they had cut down one of my favorite trees. Last time I was visiting I went by and saw some pretty large patchy areas of bark missing and wondered how long it would last. apparently not long.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Is there a possibility that it was struck by lightning? I agree with what John said. I'm not familiar with maple tree diseases or infestations, but around here we have our share of things that are killing native trees.

On the positive side it might be time to start planning some turning projects.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

thanks John, I believe you are right

Bill....I do not believe it was struck by lighting.....we had a tree next door on boundrey line that was struck by lighting many years ago....we both lost TV's and the bark was sort of peeled off the tree in straight up and down line
we have had periods of drought and then very wet this year......started having to get up leaves in august this year.....not much color.....some yellow but mostly just turned brown
its the va soft maple, but I am sure it will turn fine, I wonder if the ambrosur beetles have got into it

 

[hockenbery]

Charlie,

We have a few trees in central Florida that shed their bark routinely like crepe myrtle (an Asian ornamental) and gumbo limbo (a sub tropical native).

Our maples do not shed bark. The maples when we lived in Maryland did not shed bark.
I go along with John that shedding bark like shown in the photos is a sign that the tree had or is having trouble.


Al

 

[John Torchick]

Keep an eye on it. If it shows evidence of dying,. have it cut down. Then have a wood give-away party.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

thanks Al and John........will do

 

[Mark Mandell]

Charlie,
You tree is dying from a vascular disease that's killing the cambium and breaking the bond with the bark. The tree will decline more rapidly after the cold weather leaves. If you plan on using the wood on your lathe, suggest you take it down sooner than later to try to halt the degradation.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

thanks Mark, I agree

I looked at it again today, very warm for this time of year, insects of some sort on the bark

 

[robo hippy]

The bark does look like the Silver Maple we have out here, the under side of the leaves are almost white, so when they flutter in the breeze, they look really pretty. The bark does not look healthy, but I would have to see it up close. Around here, at 30 years old, they are 30 inch diameter on the stump, and start to fall apart. One theory I have about maple is that they have more sugars in them than most trees, and any broken branch starts to let all those little nasties in that turn it into compost. When the leaves start to look like they are sick, that is another sigh that the tree is on its way out. I have seen 2 sugar maples out here in my 18 or so years of turning. don't know them well at all.

robo hippy

 

[Charlie Knighton]

it may be a silver maple.....dad planted it......up around one foot of the ground above the knees of the trunk it is 108 inches round,28-29 diameter

still got a piece of that wood you sent me.......strange wood, it was rectangle now all I can say its not straight lines, open up in places but not sure I wood call it a crack,,,,,more of an opening.......sort of got into color need to get back to the wood

 

[Bill Boehme]

It's a box elder bug. That means that your tree must be a box elder or you have stupid box elder bugs.

It sounds like Robo sent you some madrone. I get the impression from all that Robo has said in past posts about madrone is that it is normally turned green.

BTW, the box elder bugs do not harm the tree, they feed on the seeds of box elders and other trees in the maple family. They also will eat the seeds of ash trees.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

that must be what those bugs are.......thanks for the link Bill, now I am not sure what kind of tree it was, sugar maple, silver maple, box elder......dad never bought any trees or plants......plenty of friends with plenty of trees........it did not have hair on it like what I think box elder has.....it was a sapling about 4 foot high when he planted it

the only tree with the red stains in it will be the box elder ????????find out when it comes down I guess, the top branches are very small.....not like oak

the seeds on both maples were very heavy this year......twillers, just one wing.....after got the leaves up and out of gutters , the seed pods/twillers filled up the gutters

my get around to it on wood is not very good /////things seem to get away///////not sure where the time goes////////good looking wood, madrone

most of the trees around are oaks, pine, some ceder........they planted a maple across the street about 3 years ago, its still a sapling///////today is the first time I have seen those bugs on the tree and only one or two there later today.......guess those bugs know what they are looking for

 

[Raul McCai]

I have a maple tree that is shedding bark......planted in 60's......most likely sugar maple............sun comes up on the other side of tree

is there anything to worry about?????????????

My wife is a Master Gardener; she frequently has to tell people that trees are just like every other life form in that they get sick or old and die.


That looks like silver maple bark and they do shed sometimes
After a period of growth the older bark doesn't expand and new bark pushes it off.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

thanks Raul.........since the limbs cover the house, I was not looking forward to estimate for taking her down

hopefully new bark will completely cover the heartwood, I assume its most likely to show up in spring when the sap starts rising

tree has been there 50 years and I am learning more about it in last couple of days than before.....thanks everybody for the help

 

[Gretch Flo]

It's a box elder bug. That means that your tree must be a box elder or you have stupid box elder bugs.

It sounds like Robo sent you some madrone. I get the impression from all that Robo has said in past posts about madrone is that it is normally turned green.

BTW, the box elder bugs do not harm the tree, they feed on the seeds of box elders and other trees in the maple family. They also will eat the seeds of ash trees.

Box elder bugs affect maples too -en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxelder_bug.,. I know this bug well. In the heat of the afternoon in the late summer/fall , they march across the south and west sides of house. I have sprayed with "ortho home defense" and it does the job, and I have only a couple of individual bugs the last couple of years. 3-4 years ago I found 2, 5" patches of the hundreds of red young ones that just had hatched and were migrating. They seemed to be maturing after a couple of inches of migration!!!!! (you can see in your pics, Charlie) Gretch

 

[Charlie Knighton]

patches of the hundreds of red young ones that just had hatched

do you have box elder trees or just the bugs?????? Gretch

the weather is crazy this spring.....I mean winter

 

[robo hippy]

I had an infestation of box elder beetles here some years back. I most likely picked them up at a local outdoor show where a booth across from me had a hatching during the show. There were no box elder trees at the site, but lots of Big Leaf Maple, and Oregon Ash. They didn't have the bright orange/red that the ones back in Missery (where I grew up) had, but a pale pinkish color. I still see a few of them.

Madrone does not store well without boiling. Got a burl some years back that was maybe 12 h, by 18 w by 24 l, which looked pretty solid on the outside, but, as I expected, was totally honey combed on the inside. That is just the way Madrone is.

robo hippy

 

[Charlie Knighton]

the question now is can I spray something on the maple tree with the bark shedding......the spray would likely get to the heartwood .........to get rid of all these box elder insects and will I most likely have the same thing next year when the seed pods come down??????????????

 

[hockenbery]

Hi Charlie,

I like to get experts involved with tree issues.
Two options I would pursue are
1. Trained arborists might do a free inspection and recommend a treatment or removal of the tree.

2. Consider contacting someone at the Virginia agriculture extension service.
We have a bunch if helpful experts at IFAS- this is a university of Florida Service organization.
They run garden clubs, help ranchers and growers, and do a lot of research on native plants, tree diseases......
Sort of an agriculture extension service. They have experts in just about everything.
I'm sure every state has something similar

I googled Virginia extension service - this page tells you how to get questions answered....
http://www.ext.vt.edu/about/contact.html

 

[Charlie Knighton]

thanks Gretch, robo, and al

I tried email, if no responed til new year will go to county office.....not that far, and if I am in area may drop by

 

[Gretch Flo]

do you have box elder trees or just the bugs?????? Gretch

the weather is crazy this spring.....I mean winter

I have a couple of box elder trees and a large silver maple and a dead silver maple that had a little tiger striping that I made into bowls. Gretch

 

[Dean Center]

Charlie,
Before you go spraying the neighborhood with chemicals that might be worse for you than the bugs, check out this link to the Colorado Extension web site. There's a fellow at Colorado State who is THE GUY for bug pests of plants, so this should be authoritative. Like Gretch, I recall that box elder bugs will also infest maple trees. The biggest puzzle to me is why you have immature ages of the bugs this late in the year. (those bright red soft bodied guys) If you've been having a prolonged 'summer' that might explain it, but normally, all the bugs should be adults looking for a place to hang until it's time to lay eggs in the spring.

http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/boxelder-bugs-5-522/

The philosophy of the Extension Service is to use the least toxic control method available. Sometimes that's 'mechanical control' but DON'T DO IT-if you squish box elder bugs, they stink to high heaven! Since the bugs are annoying and not harmful, you might not need to do anything.

I agree you should have someone knowledgeable take a look at your tree. It may be so weakened by age or disease that it's become a hazard to you and your home.

 

[Bill Boehme]

the question now is can I spray something on the maple tree with the bark shedding......the spray would likely get to the heartwood .........to get rid of all these box elder insects and will I most likely have the same thing next year when the seed pods come down??????????????

Charlie, no spray is going to penetrate all the way to the heartwood of a tree and probably not even very far into the bark for that matter. The boxelder bug (which is a true bug and not a beetle) only lives in crevices in the bark ... it is not a borer ... generally borers are beetle larvae. I agree with the other that you should have an expert give you advice on what if anything to do about the tree and the bugs.

... The philosophy of the Extension Service is to use the least toxic control method available. Sometimes that's 'mechanical control' but DON'T DO IT-if you squish box elder bugs, they stink to high heaven! Since the bugs are annoying and not harmful, you might not need to do anything.....

I think that it was the Orkin site that said the boxelder bugs do not stink when squashed, but that stink bugs look very similar and are often mistaken for boxelder bugs. We could politely ask Charlie to make an important contribution to bug science and provide a definitive answer to this persistent question once and for all.

Charlie, at the risk of putting yourself in peril of being banished from entering your own home until you clean your shoes, would you be willing, in the name of science, to step up to the plate, putting your best foot forward, going toe to toe with the bugs, and take a giant step for mankind? Don't walk away from this opportunity or you may kick yourself.

BTW, scientists always want to make certain that results are repeatable, so, uh, you know, get busy stepping.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

for the last 5 years or so we have had stink bugs in the area......on occasion they do get in the house, mainly when you open the door.......it has been the tradition that we flush the stink bugs 100%........there is a reason they are called stink bugs

the box elder bugs have the same shape but are somewhat smaller, they have the outline in red, they are easy to see the difference, they have not been seen in the house

I do not want the fame of stepping on the stink bugs, but I have been known to take a fly swatter outside and just to work out some frustrations , to wackem is the verb I believe.......it is good therpy and I do not charge but a nomial fee to take my class on wackem stink bugs.......the key is to use my special cleaner on the fly swatter.......Charlie's special 2H2O......I sell it in 8 ounce and 16 ounce bottles, special 2% off if order 10 bottles of either size by arbor day

 

[Mark Mandell]

Improve Your Strokes

for the last 5 years or so we have had stink bugs in the area......on occasion they do get in the house, mainly when you open the door.......it has been the tradition that we flush the stink bugs 100%........there is a reason they are called stink bugs

the box elder bugs have the same shape but are somewhat smaller, they have the outline in red, they are easy to see the difference, they have not been seen in the house

I do not want the fame of stepping on the stink bugs, but I have been known to take a fly swatter outside and just to work out some frustrations , to wackem is the verb I believe.......it is good therpy and I do not charge but a nomial fee to take my class on wackem stink bugs.......the key is to use my special cleaner on the fly swatter.......Charlie's special 2H2O......I sell it in 8 ounce and 16 ounce bottles, special 2% off if order 10 bottles of either size by arbor day

Trade that flat swatter for one of these

http://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Comp...0358425&sr=8-4&keywords=electronic+bug+racket

Come gnat season, I almost dance going to the mailbox. Forehand, overhead, shovel, especially my backhand, have all improved! Driveway's 100' and its "snap, crackle, pop" all the way.

 

[Gretch Flo]

for the last 5 years or so we have had stink bugs in the area......on occasion they do get in the house, mainly when you open the door.......it has been the tradition that we flush the stink bugs 100%........there is a reason they are called stink bugs

the box elder bugs have the same shape but are somewhat smaller, they have the outline in red, they are easy to see the difference, they have not been seen in the house

The stink bugs (or squash bugs) have a shield like shape as opposed to oval.. Regardless the box elder bugs were just lurking to enter my house and fly in. Now the assassin bug is a worse problem. I think they come in on my firewood, or in the fall. They are bigger than stink bug and slooowly creep. Just flushed one yesterday. I spite of 3 layers of kleenex you can still smell them on fingers. My cats have learned to just watch them and don't play with them, like flies or moths. Gretch

 

[Charlie Knighton]

Mark, thanks for the thread................I like that.......I think one for each hand

Gretch..................those assinan bugs sounds really bad boys.........wonder how the bug zapper would work.......still have to get rid of the stink......have to work on that

 

[Bill Boehme]

... Come gnat season, I almost dance going to the mailbox. Forehand, overhead, shovel, especially my backhand, have all improved! Driveway's 100' and its "snap, crackle, pop" all the way.

I want the link to the You Tube video. I'm sure that your neighbors have been recording this.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I want the link to the You Tube video. I'm sure that your neighbors have been recording this.

It turns out that that your neighbors did record you dancing with the bug zapper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JINYta00XAA

 

[Mark Mandell]

Photoshop'd

It turns out that that your neighbors did record you dancing with the bug zapper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JINYta00XAA

ain't my driveway . . .

 

[Charlie Knighton]

maybe I just get me a rooster and train it to eat bugs.........do not have to have batteries for a wake up calll

 

[Mark Mandell]

maybe I just get me a rooster and train it to eat bugs.........do not have to have batteries for a wake up calll

Careful, Charlie. With all those bugs, you'll be knee deep in CS in no time.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

did record you dancing with the bug zapper

if I had seen a tennis court by the ok carrol, that guy could have been doc holidays nephew......he moves too good for to be me

 

[Bill Boehme]

maybe I just get me a rooster and train it to eat bugs.........do not have to have batteries for a wake up calll

Operating cost is chicken feed.