Holes in Leaves and Trunk

[mtate]

Almost all of the leaves on my October Glory maples have holes in them. The holes are irregular: some small, some round, some large, some ragged etc. The margins of some of the holes look brown. I only saw one bug on the tree, and it was pretty big and bright green with what looked like long attenae. It was crawling up the tree so fast I couldn't catch it! I wasn't too alarmed at first, but then I noticed what looked like a one inch wet spot on the trunk of one of the trees. I thought it was just a leaf that was decaying and had somehow stuck to the trunk. When I brushed it away I found a perfectly round tiny hole, and then I found another further up the trunk. I think I'm dealing with some problems here (New York)!
The trees are only about 3 caliper and were just planted last September. I can't find any information on what could be causing the holes in the leaves or the trunk and what to apply. Please help!

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Do a google search on "leaf tatters"

Some holes in leaves are from mechanical damage in the early spring. Windy conditions when the buds are breaking will sometimes lead to the buds getting bruised which translates into holes later in the summer.

Not enough info on the holes in the tree. How about a picture?

Tom

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Cherry gets shothole fungus, or is it shot hole fungus.

Does anyone know if Maple gets that too?

 

[mtate]

Sorry I can't get pictures, but the holes in the trunk are the size of the stick of a q-tip and perfectly round. (I wanted to see how deep the hole was without doing too much damage, so I took the cotton off a q-tipp and then I could fit it in the hole, very scientific! The q-tipp went in, maybe about 1/16th of an inch? There's not much else to say about the holes, the first one I noticed as I mentioned looked like a black wet spot about one inch in diameter that I was able to wipe away, under this was the tiny hole. Yesterday I could see into the hole and today the hole looks like it is plugged with something white (not the cotton).
I looked up leaf tatters, but I think maybe the leaves are starting out with brown gauzy areas that then maybe fall out resulting in the holes with brown/red margins. Is that characteristic of leaf tatter? Thank you both for your responses.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Could be some kind of sap sucker but they are generally higher up the trunk.

Contact your local county extension agent or land grant university.

Tom

 

[Dan F]

When I first read the intial post, I'll admit, I mentally said, "oh, crap" and looked at the location again. I was afraid it may have been an Asian Longhorned Beetle! Then I saw the size of the holes in the later post and breathed a sigh of relief... ALB leaves a much bigger hole than that...

It does sound like it may be a borer infestation. I agree with Tom, contact your local extension agent.

Whatever it is, most likely they are there because the trees are under stress. If you just planted them last fall they could be under stress from the transplanting, though I would have thought that coming out of dormancy this spring would have induced decent root growth which would have taken some/most of the stress off of the tree.

How many trees are we talking about here? 2? 20? How close are they to each other? If they are spread out and you have several, it is possible that whatever is affecting them came with them to your house, in which case the nursery probably needs to be notified...


Dan