che,
i didn't get to this thread until now. as i was reading, i was feeling skeptical of the plastic wrap - sorry i didn't weigh in earlier.
i think the idea about keeping the ethelyne at hand may have been a good idea when thinking about it's role and value, but the method of doing so (plastic wrap) has too much of a negative risk value in my view.
i can't comment on the shape of the cuts you want to make - have no experience there.
the idea of not cutting off bark, but keeping it in contact with the trunk until the tree itself has obviously finished with any attempt to reattach makes a good deal of sense to me, but i wouldn't have done it with plastic wrap.
now that you've taken the wrap off, you see what i would have expected you to see. on the other hand, now that i'm thinking about it, maybe - MAYBE - one layer would have worked better - it may have let ethelyne dissipate, but it would have slowed it down, and it wouldn't have created such a nice environment for other undesirable organisms. until i had some experiments with that, though, i'd still be skeptical.
i'd probably have chosen just to shuffle the loose bark around until it was back as close as possible to its original position and strap it down.
the borer larvae you are seeing were already in your tree - they just came around to the wound area after you wrapped the tree.
microorganisms in the air were already settling on the wound when you wrapped it, too, and then got a great growth chamber in which to develop.
i'd leave that plastic off. how about washing the wound now with a dilute bleach solution and just leaving it alone?
my 2 cents.
michele quinn
p.s. really sorry about your tree. i understand what you're saying about your reaction! have blacked out a bit myself under similar stress. what you say and what you hear at those times just sort of takes place in another world, doesn't it?
really sorry about your tree. but don't give up on it.
p.s. the presence of five large borers in a tree that size is of a good deal of concern to me. they may not be the only ones, either. they suggest a stressed condition of the tree even before the injury. if there's equipment around it, it's possible that the soil over the roots is being compacted. at any rate, something else is stressing the tree, and you will probably want to correct that problem if you want the tree to recover from the injury and the pest infestation, and do well in the future.
m