While our county has been under quarantine for the last few years, this is
the first year I have actually found egg masses on my trees. What can I
expect in the future? Will my trees die? I live in a heavily wooded area
with some of the oaks several centuries old.

I read that kerosene sprayed on an egg mass will kill it, is this advisable?
What about wd40 or liquid wrench (I don't have kerosene). Most of the egg
masses I can scrape off but some are 10ft up. (I have a 8ft reach so the
last 2 feet can be covered by spray can). I notice for those masses on my
garage that Gumout dissolves them nicely but does it kill them?

The county only sprays the leading edge of the invasion assuming everything
else is a lost cause. We were last sprayed 2 years ago. To make things
worse, they found the emerald Ash Borer 2 counties over, so I guess their
next.

"jmagerl" wrote in message
. net...
While our county has been under quarantine for the last few years, this is
the first year I have actually found egg masses on my trees. What can I
expect in the future? Will my trees die?

Good question. It depends what type of predisposition your trees are in. A
tree with high vitality may well survive while the symplast of a tree that
is predisposed and has low energy reserves may well die, i.e., the symplast.

I live in a heavily wooded area
with some of the oaks several centuries old.

It depends on things like course woody debris. If you have many nurse logs
in your woods then the chances of your trees getting water during dry time
is increased. This availability of water during dry times could be the
limiting factor determining whether the symplast of your trees will survive
or not.

An article on predisposition:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/ARM.html





I read that kerosene sprayed on an egg mass will kill it, is this
advisable? What about wd40 or liquid wrench (I don't have kerosene). Most
of the egg masses I can scrape off but some are 10ft up. (I have a 8ft
reach so the last 2 feet can be covered by spray can). I notice for those
masses on my garage that Gumout dissolves them nicely but does it kill
them?


The best thing would have been good managing practices over the years
regarding the ecological stages of trees. Woods with trees where wood has
been removed on a constant basis is most likely in a predisposition. Humans
underestimate the value of the different ecological stages of trees.
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/SOUND/


The county only sprays the leading edge of the invasion assuming
everything else is a lost cause. We were last sprayed 2 years ago. To make
things worse, they found the emerald Ash Borer 2 counties over, so I guess
their next.

Does not seem to be addressing the requirements of trees regarding the
different ecological stages. The focus is only on secondary organisms.

The biggest problems for trees worldwide is decisions made out of the
ignorance of tree biology. Look at Texas where years of flush cutting and
applying wound dressing has caused an increase of oak wilt? Now you ask and
focus on what to do about oak wilt. The answer is stop flush cutting and
using wound dressing.

Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Arborist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.

Mention of gypsy moth
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/AUTO.html
and
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/ARM.html

Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Arborist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.

While our county has been under quarantine for the last few years,
this is the first year I have actually found egg masses on my
trees. What can I expect in the future?

It will vary from year to year.

Will my trees die?

If they are otherwise stressed or the gypsy moths are really bad, they
can. But in general, they will probably recover from it even if
defoliated.

I read that kerosene sprayed on an egg mass will kill it, is this
advisable?

Not familiar with that remedy but I would think that if you have the
time to seek out individual egg masses you could remove them by hand
(or stick, or ladder, or....). That's what I did on my (young, about
2 meter tall) Apple tree this spring. Some of its leaves got munched
but nowhere near a complete defoliation (mostly not due to my efforts,
mostly just due to not having as many caterpillars as in, say, the
park down the street. This was said to be a bad year).

To make things worse, they found the emerald Ash Borer 2 counties
over, so I guess their next.

Here in PG County, Maryland, they have been on the hunt for those.
They're hoping they can nip it in the bud (by cutting down ash trees
near the infected ones, and such measures):
http://www.gazette.net/stories/11220...03_31978.shtml