Receding maple trees

[blrobison]

I am encountering a bunch of maple trees that have the tops receding back and the remaining branches bushing up with a lot of leaves. One tree I thought it might be an insect infestation since I was in the process of cleaning out the dead stuff and ants were climbing all through the wood (this was 40 feet up the tree). I was researching an easy ground treatment that claims to kill all sorts of insects like the borers and beetles, but not specifically ants. It could be a disease, but I'm not familiar with any disease that is related to maples.

I have a customer with 4 maples, about 40 feet from each other, that have the top dying back. I want to save these trees so that in 10 years they won't have to dish out thousands to remove them. Could it be the ants killing off the branches? or is something tainting the soil and starving the trees?

 

[PJM]

The ants are not the cause of the decline, rather they are a symptom. Carpenter ant prefer the decaying and dead wood of trees as nesting sites. You have not told us which particular maple tree you are seeing this on nor have you provided photos to help diagnose, but there are several diseases of maple that can cause crown dieback and decline: for example, armillaria root rot and verticillium wilt. Could also be salt injury if the trees are close to a main road.

 

[blrobison]

I don't have any specific pics since I've been seeing them as I'm driving to work and a couple past customers had some mild receding so it's been teasing me for a while as to what the cause could be. Most of the maples that I notice are sugar maples and only the top branches are dying off. All the other leaves and branches look fine though, no fungi or disease spotting.