Dying Treee

[KTM250xcw]

We have a young maple out in front of our house. It was doing great until last year, and again this year looks even worse. The middle section seems to be dead, possibly infected with something. Leaves flood try to come out and not long after withers, and died.

I am in the USA, in Ohio. I have included some photos to hopefully help save the tree.

Let me know if anything else is needed.

Thanks

 

[Raintree]

Looks like it's heavily infested with armored oystershell scale. At this point it may be best to replace. Treatment with dinotefuran will knock out the insect.

 

[KTM250xcw]

Looks like it's heavily infested with armored oystershell scale. At this point it may be best to replace. Treatment with dinotefuran will knock out the insect.

Thanks a lot for the fast reply. Wishing i found this site last year. I will treat it and see if I can save it. Again thanks!

 

[redwood]

Here is more info:
https://extension.psu.edu/oystershell-scale

 

[250R]

Did you plant the tree? Can you dig around the base and find the root ball? This would help. In the second picture it appears to be lichens. Can you bend the twigs and see if they snap or are elastic (bend without breaking). I don't believe spraying is going to help the tree. You will be waisting your time, money, and product. Since it's gotten worse from last year, it appears to be in decline.

 

[JRM]

Looks like it's heavily infested with armored oystershell scale. At this point it may be best to replace. Treatment with dinotefuran will knock out the insect.

Are you referring to the smaller branches?
What is on the trunk?

Thanks!

 

[Raintree]

Are you referring to the smaller branches?
What is on the trunk?

Thanks!

The first picture shows the scale on the trunk and limbs. Not the lichens in the second picture.

 

[KTM250xcw]

Did you plant the tree? Can you dig around the base and find the root ball? This would help. In the second picture it appears to be lichens. Can you bend the twigs and see if they snap or are elastic (bend without breaking). I don't believe spraying is going to help the tree. You will be waisting your time, money, and product. Since it's gotten worse from last year, it appears to be in decline.

The tree was planted about 4 years ago when we had the home built. It looked great for two years then started to show weak growth in the middle of the tree last year. This year it’s worse.

We have a magnolia tree on the other side of the driveway that’s showing similar issues but looks much better. The trees in the back of the house look fine.

 

[250R]

Who did the planting?

 

[Jed1124]

That is one of the worst scale infestations I’ve seen.
Like Rain said, probably better to replace at this point.

 

[pdqdl]

Looks like it's heavily infested with armored oystershell scale. At this point it may be best to replace. Treatment with dinotefuran will knock out the insect.

Good call!

 

[KTM250xcw]

That is one of the worst scale infestations I’ve seen.
Like Rain said, probably better to replace at this point.

Wow ok bummer. I’m not sure who planted it. It was whomever the builder contracted with. Interestingly enough I know of 4 other houses that have gone through or going through the same issues with their font installed maples.

Would I need to do anything to the area if I’d want to plant again or abandon the location?

Should I treat the magnolia? I can get photos of that as well.

 

[Jed1124]

Wow ok bummer. I’m not sure who planted it. It was whomever the builder contracted with. Interestingly enough I know of 4 other houses that have gone through or going through the same issues with their font installed maples.

Would I need to do anything to the area if I’d want to plant again or abandon the location?

Should I treat the magnolia? I can get photos of that as well.

I would check for scale infestations on the other poorly thriving trees.

90% of the trees (especially maples) are planted to deep which results in girdling roots, trunk decay, and poor vigor.

That is why folks have been asking about the planting.

If it looks like a pole sticking out of the ground, with mulch piled up around the trunk, it’s a bad start all around.

 

[KTM250xcw]

Since I have it on the magnolia tree as well I’d like to treat to safe that one.

What is the best/recommended product to purchase to kill off the infestation?

Again thanks for everyone’s help with this. You folks are great!

 

[KTM250xcw]

I would check for scale infestations on the other poorly thriving trees.

90% of the trees (especially maples) are planted to deep which results in girdling roots, trunk decay, and poor vigor.

That is why folks have been asking about the planting.

If it looks like a pole sticking out of the ground, with mulch piled up around the trunk, it’s a bad start all around.

All the trees were installed/planted that way. Pole shoved into ground with tree strapped to it with a TON of mulch piled up around it.

I can get shots of the base of the tree tomorrow.

 

[Jed1124]

Since I have it on the magnolia tree as well I’d like to treat to safe that one.

What is the best/recommended product to purchase to kill off the infestation?

Again thanks for everyone’s help with this. You folks are great!

https://www.domyown.com/safari-20sg-systemic-insecticide-with-dinotefuran-reviews-pr-2512.html

 

[250R]

Insects are a secondary problem, not the primary problem. The question is, why is the tree in a state of decline.

 

[ATH]

Insects are a secondary problem, not the primary problem. The question is, why is the tree in a state of decline.

Not necessarily...they probably had an undetected scale infestation from the nursery that has built up over the last 4 years. They will be perfectly content on an otherwise healthy tree and reproduce like crazy until they look like that.

My guess is the other maples at the neighbors' came from the same nursery and have the same problem.

We haven't had great success with one treatment of dinotefuran (applied at highest rate) with heavy oyster shell scale (or is it Japanese maple scale...they can be hard to distinguish). We'll follow up with horticultural oil spray at crawler time and another dinotefuran treatment a year later. Then it is usually knocked out.

This is not to say planting issues aren't a real problem. They most certainly are...just not a cause of scale infestation.

 

[Raintree]

It's best not to make blanket statements. This will confuse and mislead. If insects are secondary what's the primary when your tree is killed by EAB?

 

[KTM250xcw]

Not necessarily...they probably had an undetected scale infestation from the nursery that has built up over the last 4 years. They will be perfectly content on an otherwise healthy tree and reproduce like crazy until they look like that.

My guess is the other maples at the neighbors' came from the same nursery and have the same problem.

We haven't had great success with one treatment of dinotefuran (applied at highest rate) with heavy oyster shell scale (or is it Japanese maple scale...they can be hard to distinguish). We'll follow up with horticultural oil spray at crawler time and another dinotefuran treatment a year later. Then it is usually knocked out.

This is not to say planting issues aren't a real problem. They most certainly are...just not a cause of scale infestation.

All trees that have this issue were from the same home builder that utilized the same nursery. All homes were built within a year to a year and a half of each other.

*edit. I can’t type on my phone.