Last spring one of my Norway maples leafed out and shortly there after the leaves wilted and the tree died. Its a good sized tree, maybe 24" diameter. As far is I could tell it was healthy up until it died.
Last weekend my nephew noticed some saw dust around the trunk of the tree and asked, “Why are there little noodles coming out of that tree?”.
I have never seen anything like this, I have dozens of dead and dying ash and pine trees, but the maples have been healthy.
Any idea what bug is doing this?
Should I be worried about my other maples? I have a lot of maple trees!!
Thanks for the suggestion, I searched ambrosia beetle and I think you are correct. Looks like I need to get this tree removed and burned ASAP and keep an eye on the trees near by.
Poor trees cant catch a break here. The emerald ash borer is killing all the ash trees, there is some kind of borer and a disease that is killing the pines, a blight that is killing the spruce and now this.
That frass is from ambrosia beetle but that is not necessarily what killed the tree. From my reading, ambrosia beetles usually target trees that are heavily stressed or already dying. I lost my black gold cherry this spring and it showed signs of ambrosia beetle damage. But I also saw signs of canker which may have weakened enough to allow the ambrosia beetles to finish it off.
That could very well be the case, the tree has been dead for over a year and the insect damage was only noted recently. I don’t recall the tree showing any signs of stress before dying, but honestly I don’t pay that close of attention to my non fruit-bearing trees.
