Big 100+ year old Oak- can it be saved ?

[davidbradley360]

Maybe homes, but not trees. .

I stood and visibly watched black carpenter ants removing a tree's inside pulp, bit by bit, and depositing it at the bottom of the tree. The guy that showed it to me, is 55 years old, has owned a sawmill for 35 years, and is a degreed biologist. The ants will eat rotted wood but also live wood to expand their space. The tree they were eating was alive at the time.

another time, I was in the back yard, when a tree in the lot next door came crashing down with a big noise. It wasn't a very large tree, but at the base where it snapped and fell, was covered with ants crawling all over it.

I'd say ants have a pretty heavy hand in tree destruction. Eating the wood, or tunneling through the wood to find other food, the end result is the same, we're splitting hairs here- they destroy the structural integrity of homes, and trees.

 

[Carburetorless]

yeh it was a big eye opener for me too. I'd never live next to one of those trees without getting it checked first, by that I mean some sort of sonic testing, or core sample. Imagine that thing standing outside next to your kid's bedroom window. What an ugly monster it would turn out to be, if it fell on your house and killed somebody. A tree will kill without remorse, just like a bear or wolf. They are majestic beautiful things to behold out in nature in the forest.

but not rotted, hollow, and next to your house.

The top coming out of it is likely what lead to it's demise. Yet there are people who top trees deliberately, I saw a yellow page add the other day for a tree service in Kentucky called "Tree Toppers" tree service.

 

[Toddppm]

Yeah there was no saving that tree with any kind of pruning.

Just curious why the home was abandoned? Looked like a cool old place and on alot of land. Sounds like you have a lot of family in the area too.
Too bad the house got nailed, probably won't recover from that hit, don't guess you had insurance on the place?

 

[no tree to big]

No worry here, we are fine!
Jeff :msp_tongue:

you need to stop being such a bully especially in the 101:msp_rolleyes:

I stood and visibly watched black carpenter ants removing a tree's inside pulp, bit by bit, and depositing it at the bottom of the tree. The guy that showed it to me, is 55 years old, has owned a sawmill for 35 years, and is a degreed biologist. The ants will eat rotted wood but also live wood to expand their space. The tree they were eating was alive at the time.

another time, I was in the back yard, when a tree in the lot next door came crashing down with a big noise. It wasn't a very large tree, but at the base where it snapped and fell, was covered with ants crawling all over it.

I'd say ants have a pretty heavy hand in tree destruction. Eating the wood, or tunneling through the wood to find other food, the end result is the same, we're splitting hairs here- they destroy the structural integrity of homes, and trees.

the ants were probably removing the softer rotten wood...

 

[jefflovstrom]

you need to stop being such a bully especially in the 101:msp_rolleyes:

Don't think I was, can you quote me where I was. :msp_tongue:
Jeff :msp_confused:

 

[Tree Pig]

So DB you in the Scranton area?

 

[sgreanbeans]

Yeah.........uh, hmmm, that would be a big negative on the ants eating live wood. There are many studies done on this. MANY. If that where the case, all trees would be toast. They are making use of and disposing of the soft material that is already starting to rot. They dont want to kill the tree, its their home.

 

[Oldmaple]

One more post on ants/termites. Ants do not tunnel into solid wood, only wood that has been softened by decay organisms. If they did tunnel in solid wood you would see them in solid trees occasionally. You will see trees with decay and no ants, decay and ants together, but never ant galleries and no decay. You will see "sawdust" at the base of trees with ants in them. Ants do not eat and digest wood fibers, they move wood out to make room in the galleries and let it fall where it may. Termites on the other hand eat and digest wood fibers. Here in the north we have only subterranean termites. I don't believe they consume live wood. They will consume wood if they can access it because it is in contact with the ground or they build mud tubes to it. In the south they have other types (Formosan, maybe more) which don't have to stay in the ground. I don't know that much about them other than they have huge problems with them. It is my understanding that ant galleries in structures are in an area that has had past moisture problems (a leaky roof, window/door flashing, or repeated condensation problems). You could probably get more information on this on a pest control forum.