Silver Maple Disease

[mowdenver]

This problem showed up on a silver maple this fall. Seems to be spreading fast. Nothing has changed around tree except severe drought this year.
Any ideas on what and how to treat?

 

[mowdenver]

Here is another photo.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Scraping the leasion area is there a whole were a borer would have pushed out frass?

Doesn't quite look like it to me, more like a canker type infection.

I would take some samples and send them in to an extention for analysis.

 

[tshanefreeman]

The problem may not be as it appears! But this is what it looks like to me.

I once was asked to look at an ornamental crab that was showing similar symptoms of some disease. The tree was located near the sidewalk of a residental street and showed similar wet lesions approximately 1-2 feet above the soil line. Emitting a foul odour and isolated in moreless one location.

I predicted that a neighborhood dog made a daily visit to the tree and used it as a marker for its territory. The uric acid in the dog's urine was causing the decomposition of the bark tissue and as a result it appeared much like wet wood of an elm. I had the home-owner watch for a dog doing its daily rounds.............and sure enough it visited every morning. A little black pepper applied every so often, hindered the visitation rights of the dog!