Had the local news on and im in the other room and overheard the story about how they've killed off trees in Connecticut and how dead trees are now a hazard with the snow coming. State DEP rep. talking and recommending homeowners remove them. Basically stuff we already know on here. Showed a dead tree with rep. showing what to look for and images of the EAB. Couldnt find the story to copy/paste.
Definitely an issue. I haven’t seen too much of it in my area, but I don’t live in a very wooded area. But I remember growing up in the late 80s and early 90s in NW CT having some years with huge gypsy moth nests in the trees. As a kid they were very cool looking. Now, mowing the damage they do, not so much. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
it was on channel 8 @ 530 news. Happened to catch my ear. Couldnt find story on their web page. I remember GM in the early 19080's. My brother (12 yrs older) was an avid hiker. We'd go hiking and you could hear their droppings hitting the leaf clutter it was so bad. Got a bunch of GM killed white oaks to cut down this Winter at a friends in Wallingford. How bad were they in your area?
I remember same time period, so much GM poop it sounded like rain and was drifted up on the roadside like snow.
There are many dead standing oaks around here. Dead a couple of years due to multiple drought years and gypsy moth caterpillar damage. The dead oaks are roadside, and overhanging back roads and utility wires. Tree service people are going to be busy, when government decides it's time to be proactive.
Gypsy moths are here and there are some dead oaks as a result. But the EAB has killed just about every ash tree I think. National Forest recently cut down a lot of the dead trees that were roadside (forest road). Trying to cut all I can over the next couple of weeks but hate to see all the ash trees dying.
Would need a good heavy snow to knock down lots of branches. Course that’s not rare here in New England. You can see the damage in certain areas from google earth or even Map apps that switch to satellite view. Spotted a large dead tree on my property a few days ago that way LOL Then a hunter told me about one that went down in the windstorm. Went back and checked it out. Sure enough. Big wolf trees back there that need to come down. Problem is there’s a 40 yard spread of dead branches above all the other trees. It’s going to be a dangerous mad scramble to get out of the way in time. May need a shot of whiskey before the cut and two after. Tried to attach a screen shot but these photos will not upload. Must be copyrighted material or something. Found another oak in my backyard yesterday that needs to come down. Not dead but hollow. The storm came close to knocking it down. All sorts of radial cracking and it’s leaning more than before. There’s a squirrel hole in it about eye level and a poke with a stick reveals it’s quite hollow. All sorts of nasty barber chair possibilities. Might just whip up an IED and stuff it in the hole. I’ll make sure I video that one if I ever do. Or it can come down on its own. Not aiming to hurt anything if it does.
I'm close to getting done with the dead ash here although I did find a couple more recently that I thought might make it. They go hit last summer but the wood will still be good. Trouble is, they are leaning over the creek so I'll need to pull them over or drop them then try to get them out of the creek. Then again, I could just forget them and let them fall into the creek like our neighbors do.
We were in the Gypsy Moth's path back in the 80's. You could see a swath down the mountain in Hollidaysburg where there was not a leaf left on a tree. They decimated the oak forest. I remember we were having a family reunion and we had to go out and sweep the driveway twice in the morning. All you could hear was their droppings falling down through the trees. It sounded like it was raining. We had 33 oak trees on 2 acres. This is what it looked like
Here in southern NH we haven't had a bad gypsy moth summer in about 10 years. Our oaks look pretty healthy. When I was in Ohio at the Paul Bunyan show, I talked to a Forester at one of the booths. Based on my description of our local ash trees (some blonding and some branches not leafing out), he said we have 2-3 years before they start dying en masse.
I still have a few gypsy moth/drought stricken white oaks to cut down here. Bought the bigger saw I need, just haven't made the time to get to it. Another white oak near the road leafed half way out last Spring and then just stopped. Gave up the ghost about mid-June or so. The branches are usually pretty soft/semi-punky so there's just trunk wood on them that's any good. There's quite a few houses around here with dead white oaks in the yard and those people either can't afford to pay someone to cut them down or choose to let nature take care of the problem for them. I guess they have good home owner's insurance.
I remember in the 80’s at my grandparents house in the Catskills. Sunny out but in the woods it sounded like it was pouring rain - all that Gypsy moth droppings hitting the leaves on the way down. Killed 90% of the trees on their land.
About 20 years ago or so it was tent caterpillars. I used to go out with a torch and burn the suckers at dusk when they crawled back to the tents. Didn't really care if I damaged the tree all that much as they were usually cherry trees in a poor location anyway.
The Ash on my property are notably dying this year. When I was walking out back and looking at all the sad trees, I thought this is the end of a great tree...wonder if they will be gone forever now. Lot's of little ones to come down if I can get to them all, many are 8 to 12 inch diameter and around 30 feet tall. Breaks my heart to lose them trees to a bug
Oh boy, early 80’s here in Ct was horrible. The forest was alive with the sounds of dropping scat. I remember building a set of stone steps on the Ct River. Caterpillars everywhere. Everything I touched was caterpillar. It was pretty damm gross. Even the mortar was full of em. Some geologist would get a kick out of tearing apart those steps.
