rotting inside

[dchrysler]

I live in upstate New York and have a few beautiful Sugar Maples growing in my yard, 40ft-50ft high. One is in serious trouble, rotting inside and covered with caterpillars in the Summer, and I worry about the others...is there anything that can be done to prevent losing all of them?

 

[Treebeard]

You have two seperate issues here. The caterpillars first....not all caterpillars are bad or do excessive damage to trees....trees & bugs have evolved together after all. Imported pests like gypsy moths are another matter, especially if a tree is suffering other kinds of stress from drought, age, or whatever. Most healthy trees can suffer a defoliation from bugs & put out new leaves. The down side is that this pulls down a trees energy reserves from previous years...so a tree already in trouble may not make it. The best approach is to have the caterpillars identified and any needed treatment discussed by a local professional or your county extension agent.
Now the rot....trees are really alive on the outside edge of the trunk, where new growth happens each year. The wood inside is mostly dead tissue and gives the tree structural support. A tree can live for a long time with some rot of wood. The issue is when the rot gets to the point where the tree may fail. Fail as in fall down, snap in a windstorm, etc. If the tree is near any target that may be damaged by such a failure it becomes a hazard and may make an owner liable if they know it might fail & do nothing. The only way to judge a trees intergrity is to carefully examine it with professional training & experience. Arborists have all kinds of formulas & tools to figure out a trees condition. Without examining a tree there is no way to give you specific recommendations about keeping or removing it. Just don't fill it with cement (ever) or other "treatments" without haing a pro look at it first.

Hope this helps

 

[Timothy Kasulin]

the other thing is be careful not to let the tree rot to a point that it will be dangerous to climb for trimming or removal. This is a common mistake of many homeowners around here. Those kind of things can prove very costly in the long run whether it be from the tree falling because of such severe rot and damaging stuff or just becoming more of a hazard and being more expensive to remove due to the liability involved. I am not trying to scare you at all but just want you to be aware of those things.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Have a registered consulting arborist http://www.asca-consultants.org/ take a look at the tree and maybe set up a periodic re-inspection schedule.

These consultants offer a service that has no interest in any future work, such as removal. Many times a recomendation is given that does not have the trees best interest in mind.