Help please, I have a 7-8 yrs old Acer-P-Viridis. In Oct last Fall, I found out one of the large branch (~1" caliber) have some types of borer or insect or disease that eat thru the bark (I even see small holes on the bark) and the bark are stripped/peeled off (see attached photos 1 &2). This is the lower branch where the leaves turned orange-red and begin to fall (photo-3). BTW, I did spray 'Cygon' insecticide (2-3 applications few days apart) in hope to stop the spread. Do you have any idea what it is? and any treatment that you can recognize me in the Spring, please?. I am reluctant to cut it off until I find out what is the root cause. BTW, the tree is now going thru dormant and I am anxious to see what will happen in Spring. Many thanks, Steve
In my area, squirrels will do that kind of damage. Brown squirrels will scratch the bark off, bite it and pull it off, it drives me crazy. On a smaller scale chipmunks will do it too. It sounds ridiculous until you see them do it. They seem to favor trunks and horizontal branches. Not being familiar with your area, I cant say with certainty that they are the cause. But if it were in my neighborhood, brown squirrels would be responsible. South of here where I grew up, there are only grey and black squirrels. They dont seem to be destructive like the larger brown squirrel. I wrap damage with Dewitt tree wrap. Its different than normal tree wrap. It breathes, stretches, and really works great. It will not lock in moisture like regular tree wrap. I am not saying with certainty that it will save the branch, but in my experience it defiantly increases the odds of survival. I am not sure why, but it seems to speed up the healing process (or development of wound wood). If you are a surgeon, you can use a sharp blade to clean up the bark edge, to green tissue. This clean cut will heal faster than torn and damaged tissue. I think the holes in the bark are a separate issue. Another theory is that an animal peeled away the bark to get to the bugs that bored under the bark. I dont think its a disease.
Morning JT1, Thyank you for your quick reply. I took another look yesterday and the bark is still peelled off a bit, i guess from the early damage. You are correct, these are the horizontal branches but I am not sure it was caused by squirrels or chip munks although I do have these friends running around my garden. I look at Verdee book and he mentioned about some kind of 'borer' that is why i srated with Cygon. Should I wrap around these branches now or just wait until Spring and assess the condition?. Any other thing that I should look around for helping to diagnose the symptom?. Thanks again, Steve.
yap me too, I didnt know whats going on until I caught this little beast red handed. You maybe build a net around the maple and see if the damage still occurs. --- Check out my hand-crafted authentic German Music Boxes
