Oak wilt disease is kickin' my trees ass!

[Cam]

I'm tired of cuttin' down my 80 year old live oaks! Cut down 12 already and still have 8 dead ones to go. Plus several more showing the disease. Oak wilt is devastating Texas! Dude across the road from me spent thousands to have his treated with those injections. Most of those trees are dead now! Anybody know any tricks? I've heard some rancher is pouring Clorox bleach around the drip line of his infected ones and getting good results. Only problem now is his trees smell like his washed underwear and the leaves are lily white! Where are all the A&M folks? Aren't they supposed to find cures for this kind of stuff? I've pretty much given up and just planting alternate trees that are immune to this crap.

[Rabid Cougar]

It is transmitted by their root systems, which are all interconnected Unless you have trenched using a root plow you are doomed. You can actually plant new ones right where the old ones were and they will not have any problems.....except they are not 80 years old.

[BwdLion73]

Trenching around each tree is the only thing I have heard that works. I have lost several hundred on some farm/ranch land I have. I was told that if you use the dead trees as firewood it could become airborne...but I have not confirmed that. The oaks are so thick on my place that I am unable to stop it as it is spread by the root system also. :confused:

[rancher]

Call the Bob Webster gardening show on KTSA out of San Antonio, 550 on the AM dial. He has a toll free number and is on Sat 5am-9am and Sunday 8am-10am. He is also a rancher and claims to have stop oak wilt on his ranch. He can tell you how he did it.

[bwdlionfan]

Originally posted by Cam
I'm tired of cuttin' down my 80 year old live oaks! Cut down 12 already and still have 8 dead ones to go. Plus several more showing the disease. Oak wilt is devastating Texas! Dude across the road from me spent thousands to have his treated with those injections. Most of those trees are dead now! Anybody know any tricks? I've heard some rancher is pouring Clorox bleach around the drip line of his infected ones and getting good results. Only problem now is his trees smell like his washed underwear and the leaves are lily white! Where are all the A&M folks? Aren't they supposed to find cures for this kind of stuff? I've pretty much given up and just planting alternate trees that are immune to this crap.

Call the Home Depot in Brownwood and ask for the garden center. The lady that runs the department actually has a degree in botany. I bought 3 young live oaks from her about a year and a half ago and planted at my house (in DFW). Well last summer their leaves all started turning brown... before long about 80% of their leaves were brown. They are about 7-8 feet tall. I called her and she recommended a product that Bayer makes. I put it on them and sure enough the few leaves that were green remained green. Slowly new leaves began budding out and now the trees are fine. I don't know that mine have what yours had, but this lady knows her stuff.

[1st and goal]

Now they are saying that its possibly the result of coal/lignite plants causing the death of oaks down wind. I guess another case of acid rain.

I have many that I suspected oak wilt killed them but we've had about 4 years of drought here and the local ag guy says most around here have succumbed to drought.

I also think that some type of grub/insect is somewhat responsible along with carpenter ants. Seems each one I bring down is rotted and has traces of both pests.

I have at least a dozen that need razed.

[Old Dog]

Been fighting oak wilt/decline for 25 years here in eastern Burnet County. Have gone thru the "Alamo" chemical injection routine twice to the trees around the house. Just too costly to attack every tree. The injection does slow things down, but their canopies are still thinning. Soon it will be just junipers and rocks..............

The trenching method is not much of an option in this hard limestone....makes a terrible mess and has mixed results. Have worked with County Ag Agent for many years now. In truth, I personally have just about given up hope. Very interesting how it will bypass certain trees right in the middle of a mott of live oaks.

We have cut near 250 trees down on our ranch in 20 plus years. It is absolutely sickening.....................

[Rabid Cougar]

Also significantly spread by powerline right-of-way trimming.

[buckeyebob]

See your County Agent...they work thru the TAMU System (as a UT guy, I just hold my nose) but they do know there buisiness.

[Rabid Cougar]

Been working with Texas Forest Service and Texas A&M for over 15 years since the wilt first started to show up ....I am sorry, there is only so much that you can do. You can spend lots of money for very little if any benefit.

[BwdLion73]

Originally posted by Rabid Cougar
Also significantly spread by powerline right-of-way trimming.

How so? I ask because I have a TXU easement with 3 pole large power lines that run thru part of my land. It seems about every 7 years or so they come by and shred and poison stuff underneath. I have often wondered what they were spraying. :thinking:

Now I'm starting to twitch with agent orange snydrome...:eek:

[Rabid Cougar]

Originally posted by BwdLion73
How so? I ask because I have a TXU easement with 3 pole large power lines that run thru part of my land. It seems about every 7 years or so they come by and shred and poison stuff underneath. I have often wondered what they were spraying. :thinking:

Now I'm starting to twitch with agent orange snydrome...:eek:

On those big transmission lines they do herbicide everything in their right-of-way.

On the smaller distribution lines they trim 10 feet away from the power lines so you don't get arcs and shorts during wind storms and such if the trim an infected tree and then go to another, the chain saws transmit the wilt. Texas Forest Service has photos of easements over several years that prove this. Also if you trim Oaks during mild weather when the bugs are out and drawn to the wounds. They also transmit th ewilt. You are supposed to trim oaks during the coldest parts of the year.

[Old Dog]

Many years ago (early to mid 1970's) A&M called the problem Live Oak "Decline" because it usually took several years for the tree to croak. The vasular system slowly clogged causing the tree to have less leaf canopy each year. When you see thinning canopy and sucker shoots growing from the truck you most likely got it. My Father lost a dozen or so this way in Burnet back in 1975 or so.

Later A&M classified a faster developing problem as Live Oak "Wilt". This process takes only months to claim a tree.

Our local Ag Agent said with the confusion, both are just called "Wilt" now. Same result, just different time span.

I've read that probably 2/3 of all the Live Oak firewood cut in Texas is contaminated and we keep hauling it into the urban areas to burn and "spread" it's distruction.

Have any of you noticed the huge area of dead oaks between Lampasas and Goldthwaite? Really bad there.









































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