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Wish I'd listened to that old arborist about oak wilt timing
A guy I met at a job site in Austin told me not to prune oaks between February and June, said the sap beetles would spread oak wilt like crazy. I figured he was being dramatic and trimmed a few branches off a red oak in early April anyway. Three months later that tree is dropping leaves and two neighbors have sick oaks too, county extension confirmed it's oak wilt. Has anyone else dealt with this spreading through a whole block after one bad cut?
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michaeltorres1mo ago
Tempted to print that county extension report and mail it to everyone who's ever looked at a tree with a saw and thought "eh it'll be fine."
Just got off the phone with our local extension office and the guy laughed when I asked about prevention, said "you already know the answer to that one" which is funereal levels of unhelpful.
Guess I'll be spending my next weekend digging a trench through my own yard instead of doing anything actually fun.
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diana6171mo ago
That three months later timeline hits home, my neighbor did the exact same thing and now we've got a giant trench cutting through our backyards where the utility company had to sever roots to stop the spread." Had to dig a foot-wide barrier trench two feet deep between our properties and it still took a couple years before the fungus finally stopped moving.
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