I'm not quite sure if there is a good way around here. I don't get up to remove it myself, but refer it to local tree companies.
We have a couple of oaks here that are easily a couple of hundred years old, but they just have a few small clusters here and there, and I just ignore it.
One other tree, even when we purchased here two years ago, is virtually obliterated with mistletoe. Nothing would help. It's going to be removed in the next few years - still alive. So it's the only bad one of the bunch, and it's extremely bad.
On my advice topic for Mistletoe, I did include the idea that people may want to consider ignoring it. Not to ignore safety of course. But the cost could become prohibitive for some people.
It really just depends on who has the trees and where they live. If its one of few old oaks in the city limits, it would make sense to manicure and get the mistletoe out. It its big property in the country with a bunch of trees, new ones can always replace the old ones.
What a wieird plant it is.
Thanks this is a pet project of mine and his tree is a
huge mostly healthy Quercus rubra the customer has
a special fondness for. What I know of mistletoe is
if left it will seed usually at maturity and become
a true problem. The reading I have for this does not
provide a positive chemical solution for this pest, so
I guess I will continue with cutting and covering the
wound. This tree is around fifty inch diam a mature
and beautiful specimen. I have thinned a little and
deadwooded, slightly raised limbs over roof!
He wants more off over the roof line! I told him
that we need to be gentile and do over different
sessions, that mature trees are not suited for major
trimming! I will try to get pics soon it is a nice tree
and plan to help it stay that way!