The Borers Return With a Vengeance

When walking out to the barn the other day, I glanced up in the canopy of trees that border the eastern edge of our property and immediately noticed a troubling sight - the leaves to three of our oak trees have turned brown and are dead.  This happened so fast it made out heads swim.

Let's back up a bit.  We've lost four water oaks in that same location over the past several years.  The eastern edge of our property was once a shady grove and now, well, it's not so shady any more.  There are some pecan trees in the "grove" that should enlarge their canopy now without the competition, but I don't like to lose trees.  We'll use the wood for firewood and all, but still, I'd rather have a live tree providing shade for the animals in our hot summers.

If you look around the bases of all the affected trees, you can see sawdust.  I Googled it and found that the culprit is something called the Red Oak Borer and the water oak is in the red oak family.  I've blogged about it previously HERE.  It doesn't seem to bother other trees from what can gather.  From talking to a knowledgeable tree expert, I learned that water oaks live for only 70 years.  I've read elsewhere that they live for 30 years and then die for the next 40!!  That's a more accurate way to state it, I guess.  Well you can see the dead/dying trees below.  It looks like fall, but it's not.

It ain't fall.

So here's my plan.  First, I'm going to borrow a chainsaw from my Dad and cut the trees down.  It will be mighty tricky, though, as the tree on the left in the picture below leans precariously over the garden fence.  The tall one on the right below is right near the barn.  I think I'll have to use a come-along to pull the tree in the direction that I want it to fall.  This project is not going to be for the faint of heart. I'll tackle that within the next month before limbs begin falling.

I'll then cut the trees into firewood sized pieces and then split it all and stack it for firewood to be used over the next several winters.  It is hard to even think about firewood at the tail-end of June, though.

Finally, I read that to treat borers you should spray permethrin all over the bark of the base of the tree. I'll have to purchase some of that and spray the remaining water oak trees in the grove to keep from losing any more of them.  I should have done this before, but there's always something else going on and I was negligent in not taking care of business.

Borer Damage

Hopefully, once the remaining trees are treated, we won't lose any more as those trees cast a shadow over the garden until almost noon, allowing me to enjoy shady mornings in the garden on the weekends.  Darned Borers!!

Chopping down two more trees

So the other day I posted about some beetles killing three water oak trees near our barn.  The first tree that died was dropping limbs and was threatening to fall in the garden across my newly constructed fence and we just couldn't have that, could we? I cut it down with an ax and used a come-along to pull tension on the tree in order to make it fall where I wanted it to fall.  I amazingly achieved success.

The other two trees scared me a little, I must admit.  One of them was pretty doggone tall.  The other one, while not as tall as the other two, had a bigger diameter trunk and a wicked bend that directed all the weight at a precarious lean over the garden fence.  When a good friend offered to help me with this project, it made me feel better.  Basically, we were going to use the same method, except we'd use my friend's tractor to apply tension rather than a come-along.  We got going and used a chainsaw as opposed to an ax to cut the wedge where the tree (hopefully) will hinge over in the direction we wanted it to fall.

Cutting the wedge

Then I climbed as high up as I dared and attached a chain around the tree.  I must admit I was a little afraid since the tree was dead and already had dropped some big branches the night before.  If a branch (called a widow-maker) would have dislodged from the tree and fallen on me, it would've made for a bad day. But I was able to attach a chain collar to the tree and connect two more chains together to give us enough length to have the tractor out of harm's way once we cut the other side of the tree and started pulling the tree with the tractor.

Chain attached at the highest point

We made sure that the dog, goats, cows and chickens were all safely out of the way and then my friend got on his blue tractor.  I began cutting into the tree with the chainsaw on the backside of the wedge that was cut earlier and the tension on the chain was held tight.  We heard some popping noises, followed by the tree hinging over, and in no time flat the tree was lying flat on the ground EXACTLY where we wanted it laid.

TIMBER!!!!

Well, that took no time.  We felt good about our tree-felling and decided to tackle the next tree.  This one, due to its diameter, but mostly its lean, was going to prove to be more challenging.  We again cut the wedge out.  Because it was bigger, we had to cut from both sides before we had the notch cut out.

Sawing the notch out of the next tree

As you can see, this tree had recently died and still had its brown leaves attached, silhouetted against a bluebird sky.  By the way this is the tree that Penelope, the peahen, roosts in.  She's gonna have to find a new spot!

We attached the chain and finished cutting the wedge out.  The photo below showed what's at stake if our lumberjack skills were lacking - a brand new fence, a row of okra, a bunch of luffa gourds and two Tabasco pepper plants.

A second look at the photo below shows something else leaning besides the tree!  If you look at the fence posts on the end of the garden fence, they've got a pretty good lean to them as well.  Back in the Spring when the goats broke through the fence and got in the garden and ate their recommended daily allowance of green vegetables, I had to rebuild the fence quickly to salvage the remaining crop.  The ground was very wet.  When I inserted my posts into the post holes and pulled the fence tight with a come-along, the soft ground gave way under the tension, making my fence look like abstract art or something out of a Dr. Seuss children's book!  Oh well - it might not be pretty to look at, but it keeps the goats outta the garden. 

Lean on me, when you're not strong...

Due to the angle of the tree, before we started the cutting and pulling, I remarked to my friend, "Now, if this thing falls on the fence, it's okay.  We've done everything we know how to do."  Then we went through the same process and when I heard the creaking and popping, I stepped back with the chainsaw and strained with everything I had to will the tree from falling on the fence.  Boom!

A close call!

The tree fell narrowly missing the fence.  Oh a few branches (as seen above) hit the fence, but nothing was broken.  We didn't even need to tighten any wire.  We began to cut up the trees, toting branches to the burn pile and chopping up the remainder for firewood logs that Benjamin and I will split.  The removal of the three trees opens things up a little bit and will allow the pecan trees in the little wooded area to spread out and grow.  There is still plenty of shade for the cows.  Now with those three trees gone, we actually have a little more room to drive the cattle trailer or the 16 foot wagon full of hay bales back to the barn.