termites in living pine

[doggonetrees]

Had to cut one of my yard trees - 75 foot pine- due to termites on southern facing side of tree to the height of 20 feet up. No fire damage or dying limbs in the tree. Can anyone tell me the cause of this? It was not in a wet area.

 

[treeseer]

Are they Formosan termites? The native kind do not eat living wood so they do not kill trees. If they were in the tree then it was decay not insects that made the tree look unsafe.

What % of the stem cross-section was hollow?

 

[doggonetrees]

At the base of the tree, 51/2 " of the tree was rotten. Fireant bed along this side also. After I cut the tree, at the 20 ft area, the tree was rotten with active termites in it. 40% of the cross section was hollow. Should have stated that there was no lightning strikes on this tree, either. 10 feet up in the log from the ground had 17 grub worms in it.

 

[treeseer]

Sounds bad at the 20' spot; any fungus activity evident, such as fusiform rust? physical wound? branch stub?

 

[doggonetrees]

no rust, blight, or fungus evident. It was a nice straight pine with no limb growth until the 35' mark. Didn't even have covered up knots or old stubs in trunk until reach of lower canopy limbs. It was next to a single phase power line, but the previous owners and myself keep the the row clear, so there is no possibility of spray damage. I can saw out slabs on the northern side of the tree, just not as many at the 20'mark. Also, there were no wounds visible in any part of the tree, even at the stump. The termites tunnels go down into the root mass 2 and 1/2 feet on the south side of tree.

 

[treeseer]

heartrot from root infection? I'd sure like to see some pics of the bugs and the damage. If non-Formosan termites did the damage, that's new to me.

 

[doggonetrees]

I am using a govt. computer and not quite sure if I can post pics, but will try when I get home to get some pics with the wifes camera. Also, looking at your profile, I have another fungus question. Couple of years ago, I had a large birch tree that was hollow, had mushrooms growing up the outside of it, carpenter ants- all kind of woes. Nothing near to tie into, couldn't get a truck to it-had to be climbed and taken down. When I was cutting the wood up, some of the dust/ chips went under my armpit and gave me a nasty infection that had to be treated with anti-fungal cream and oral meds from a Dr. Have any input to what could have caused this. It was early spring, so it wasn't heat related. Cut down other birches with nothing like this happening.