My deciduous tree has bark that's curling off on the higher branches. Underneath there are tons of earwigs and most of the offshoot branches are dead.
Should I remove the curling bark or leave it be?
Tree Care
My deciduous tree has bark that's curling off on the higher branches. Underneath there are tons of earwigs and most of the offshoot branches are dead.
Should I remove the curling bark or leave it be?
What tree, how big, situated where or nearby to what.
About 30 feet tall, behind my house. I'm not sure what species it is, but I think it's an ash tree.
Earwigs are harmless enough, bark is meant to stay on trees, if bark is coming away in sections up the crown that's not a good sign at all, the only living part of the tree is under the bark and protects it from rot. Ash trees in my country are called widowmakers because they're strong enough to hold dangerous loads before snapping out.
Resist the temptation to go up it on a ladder and have a nice day, get a decent arborist to look at it and discuss options, fungi brackets, amber mushrooms and some mushrooms regardless at the base or drip line on the soil may indicate structural issues, look for included unions and weeping sections of the tree. How are the leaves on the branches where the bark is coming away, dead, alive, withering?
Several anons here know their trees, just post a picture
Okay. It's too dark to take one today, but I'll be back tomorrow with one.
When you say "weeping" do mean branch drooping like willow trees do?
Weeping as in like this, fluids or lesions ...Look up some pictures of "ash dieback" and see if that's like your tree.
Here it is.
It's pretty dry I think, there are barely any leaves on those branches, and there's no mushrooms; only lichens.
That will fail sooner rather than later, what you've indicated as bark coming off is not the actual issue, the bark is like a toe nail that grows away from upper cambium of the tree.
What you've got is deep rot of the heart wood, wounds on trees are optimally closed and sealed by the cambium in the same way a flesh wound self seals in humans. You're looking at the arboricultural equivalent of a diabetic foot with healthy cambium receding back away from the wound.
You either want to relocate those goalposts and stay away from it and wait for it to fail, or get someone out to remove that bough and figure out what is causing it, it'll likely be inside the tree, if the tree needs "removal" , decline, leave it as standing dead wood for biodiversity, unironically.
Tldr, your tree is fricked.
Can't I just remove all the dead boughs? Those two with the green leaves look healthy enough.
>get someone out to remove that bough and figure out what is causing it, it'll likely be inside the tree
Yes, but it'll likely be inside the tree, and, you'd better have life insurance if your plan is to cut that bough off from a ladder with a saw. Even if the pathogen hasn't penetrated into the main stem, cutting a bough that size off will likely condemn the tree anyway, albeit after another 5-10 years.
Well my plan was actually to climb the tree an saw it from there. I'm pretty comfortable climbing it and I can get at the dead branches without much trouble.
Is that a moronic idea?
The thing that is rotten out is the thing that gives the bough strength, you have a high chance of that folding down and swinging into your face, the way to do it is to climb the healthy section, tie into it, then shimmy across and section the dead bough in meter long sections under tension ideally.
If you try dealing with that rotten bough on your own, up the tree on a ladder you're genuinely taking your life in your hands. You wouldn't need three guesses as to why I'm no longer an arborist.
Oh, gotcha.
While I was out there today I noticed the tree next to it had some leaf disease. Do I just cut these leaves off? Cut the whole branch? Or leave them alone?
It's fine, leave them be. If you watch at least one hour of tree surgeon accidents on YouTube you'll get a better understanding of how it goes wrong for people as to the ash, GL.
Okay. Thanks.
When I say "leave as deadwood", I mean a branchless stump that can't fall over, taller the better within reason.
I wood