I cut two cord of pine that died due mostly to the drought this last Winter. I cut down one hemlock that succumbed to gypsy moths and the drought. I found two more in the woods. I have over a dozen white oaks that flushed out about 30 or 40 % new leaves after being ravished by the gypsy moth caterpillar last year and then mysteriously the leaves turned brown in August just as they got to about full size. I was suspicious the trees had died. no leaves this year. :-( One is too close to my house and one is too close to my parent's house and two are too close to the neighbor's property on the fence line so have a tree company rep coming out at noon to give an estimate for piecing them down. Out this AM to tag and get a better count on the dead ones. No sense leaving them standing dead. This one over my driveway is gone. 60 years ago it was completely covered in wisteria. When we were kids we cut a vine at the ground and swung like Tarzan from them. There was an American Chestnut next to it at the same time. This one has always been in the middle of the front yard at my parents'. It has 50% of its leaves this year. This is sad. I like white oak to burn. This is not a good way to get it. Edit: Actually it has been 3 or 4 years of very high gypsy moth populations with the last two years so bad there was no shade for mosquitos for most of the Summer. Gonna have to get used to dousing myself in DEET again. Never thought I would look forward to that. Also have 7 0r 8 huge pine trees that are dead from some kind of pine beetle. So many bleed holes on a trunk you can't count them. The sap never makes it up the tree. I'm thinking I need to buy or hire a bandsaw mill. Before the termites have lunch.
Pretty lousy hearing about the tree loss. Last year was tough with the drought. I heard about the gypsy moths down your way and they are expanding. We have winter moths up this way that are underway. I've sprayed BT on a few shrubs and trees, but the frequent rain is not helping. I'll go for another round today.
We had winter moths pretty bad but I think the gypsy moths may have displaced them. We didn't have too many moths flying around after Thanksgiving like we had in the past. I'm hoping the rain this year developes a good crop of the bacteria that kills them.
Back in the 80's my parents property was completely defoliated by gypsy moths. Killed a lot of oaks...but the one I remember most started dropping its leaves every year in August. It lasted a good many years, but the neighbor hated it because the leaves fell in his yard
Yeah, gypsy are terrible and are a real mess even if they don't kill the trees. Tim, I well remember that outbreak in the 80's. We had it bad here but then I headed out to PA and could hardly believe the damage there. Amazing. billb3 I don't like the deet either but love the thermacell. The skeeters are terrible this year but the thermacell makes working outdoors a breeze. They use a little butane so you have to let them warm up, but that is only a minute or two. We laughed a few days ago when we wanted to do something on the porch. Skeeters all over. So I lit a thermacell and laid it down then came back in the house. I'd say in less than a minute we went out and there were no skeeters around! Yesterday I did a little work on the tractor. I put the thermacell unit in the cup holder on the fender; no skeeters bothered me even though I went right into the woods. I highly recommend them.
My dad and I killed millions of gypsy moths with a super soaker filled with dish soap and water. Spray the caterpillars and they die almost immediately, this also works on tent worms. We saved the oaks from the moths and tent worms only to have them hit with the oak wilt.
Back from tagging about 1/2 acre. I tagged 13 white oaks 2 red oaks ( one is alive but hollow in the middle from rot, leaning and cracked) 1 hemlock tree 7 pine trees (pine borers) I'm going to need some new bull rope and try to get my pulleys and snatch blocks back. I still have red maple trees limbed and sectioned in the swamp left behind because it got too wet. :-(
Greg, has rope at Left Coast Supplies too. He left Baileys and started LCS. Bailey's has had some security and shipping issues in the recent past.
