Pine suddenly died

[The Flower Lady]

Hi, We have a short leaf pine that suddenly died almost overnight. I don't know the name of it but it is not the tall Georgia pine. It is smaller with short soft needles. The man who is coming to cut it down said it was probably caused by grubs and we needed to get something to put around the other trees (pines and ceders) to protect them. Does anyone have any ideas on what we should get? Thanks!

 

[madbrad312]

pines

my grand dad used to put moth balls around our pines they never got infested with bugs but lightning sure loved them

had to mow them down then

 

[maxburton]

Grubs can't kill a tree overnight. They munch on roots and could possibly cause slow damage, but they generally stay away from trees. The only pathogen I know of that can kill a tree overnight is lightning.

 

[Fireaxman]

Our primary short leaf pine (Loblolly) is subject to Pine Bark Beetles. They don't really kill the tree overnight, but it looks like it. The needles get a little discolored in the early attack, but you rarely notice it unless you know what to watch for. Then, "Suddenly", the tree is dead.

We used to spray neighboring trees with (what was it?) Lindane (I think) as high as we could reach, but I think they quit making the insecticide. Now they are telling us you have to cut everything in reach of the beetle (they are not strong fliers, but I don't remember the distance). Google Search "Pine Bark Beetle" if someone smarter than me doesn't give you some details.