Hi everyone!
I have a sylvestries out in the woods that I feed and try and get healthy enough to collect. However it has some “infectious wounds” and the half of the tree does not have the same strength as the other half. Can anyone help to identify the disease and how to treat it and also could this be the cause of the strength discrepancy?
As you can see from the images some wounds are black while others have hardened sap in orange-ish color with a sandy feel to it.
Also there are some ants that keep climbing around on the tree.
Thanks!
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Hi Geir, It could be borers. Try carefully removing the dried resin and see if there is a hole underneath. The ants are probably looking (or maybe farming) aphids.
Thanks for the input. I did go back and removed the old sap and on newer wounds I found a small cavity. But no critter inside, I cleaned out the sap and patched the hole with cut paste (puddy). I also brought some insecteside as I did find what seems to be aphids. It didnt seem to bother them much:/ I think the tree might have several issues. There seems to be some holes in the bark on young wood that forms those large bulbs of sandy like sap pretrusion over time, but I cant be sure. It is such a nice tree. I would hate to loose it so all help is highly appreciated. Some more images attached
Are there other trees in the vicinity that may have the same problem? You could use them as an alternative in helping to solve the problem. It would be a shame to lose such a good specimen.
I finally found the cause. I was able to identify the aphid based on the image, and it actually is what causes the black mould and I expect also the wounds. A soap water spray is one of the recommended treatments for the aphid-problems, so I will start there. I will also clean up rest of the wounds and apply cut paste. The aphids also attracts the ants that can nest in the root region and will damage the roots in their nest building, this can explain the strength discrepancy, so I will also apply some insect spray to remove the ants.
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I have found that a mix of black soap and canola/colza oil was especially effective against aphids and ants. You may have to spray it a couple of times, say 2 weeks apart.
The mix I use: for 1 liter of lukewarm water, 2 tablespoons each black soap and canola/colza oil. You can also add 1 tablespoon of alcohol (70% to 90%) to the mix but that’s optional. Mix well and spray the whole tree.
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