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Death to the Willow Oak


monsoon

Should Charlotte pursue battle against the Cankerworm?  

56 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Charlotte pursue battle against the Cankerworm?

    • No - it is a folly to try and battle this pest
      5
    • Yes - Charlotte's canopy needs to be protected
      53


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^Yet throughout this, the problem continues to spread and infest a larger part of the city each year. There was a time not to long ago when this wasn't a problem in Commonwealth-Morningside, and but it has now spread to there form Myers Park and Dilworth.

You can't fight mother nature and the best plan would be to let it take its course in a natural manner.

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^The city is pretty good at removing diseased and damaged trees on public property. I should imagine the chances of a jogger getting injured by a falling limb is a lot less than that of say, getting hit by an automobile. Clearly a forest of consisting of a monolithic set of trees (very few species, all of the same age) is not a healthy situation and eventually they are all going to die at the same time anyway. This infestation of worms is just a symptom of the problem and one that I don't think that can be battled by artificial means in an effective manner.

Obviously that is not the best plan.
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This is an interesting topic. I had no idea what those bands were around all the trees. I think that Charlotte should start diversifying its trees today, but dont give up on the willow oaks. Keep them around as long as possible, do whatever to save them, even if it only delays the inevitable.

Just let me know when the sprayings will take place so I can be out of town!

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^The city is pretty good at removing diseased and damaged trees on public property. I should imagine the chances of a jogger getting injured by a falling limb is a lot less than that of say, getting hit by an automobile. Clearly a forest of consisting of a monolithic set of trees (very few species, all of the same age) is not a healthy situation and eventually they are all going to die at the same time anyway. This infestation of worms is just a symptom of the problem and one that I don't think that can be battled by artificial means in an effective manner.

Considering the problem gets worse every year, what is a good plan?

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I have lived in each of these neighborhoods over the years and remember when most did not have this infestation. I take it you made the comment mainly to somehow discredit what I said which is pretty much a waste our time and doesn't do anything to address the issue at hand. Everyone knows why nothing is being done, that is the things I suggested, because homeowners are clinging to the hope these trees can somehow be saved in the long run when obviously that isn't going to happen.
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Charlotte is known for it's trees and I'm perfectly happy with the city trying to protect that. Yes, we should start diversifying our canopy some, but it will take decades for the saplings to grow into the giants we have now. We need to protect what we have for as long as we can and not allow a parasite to kill them. The city is in the right trying to defend our trees.

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Seems to be more an issue of cost/benefit analysis than anything emotional or aesthetic (for the record I am a huge annoying lover of trees). If it costs too much to attempt saving them, and is not guaranteed to work or prologue the tree's life much then replacement is the only logical option.

Luckily, a staggered approach (such as replacing every 3rd tree every 5 years) allows preservation of most of the canopy and the visual aesthetic created from these trees. They grow around 2 feet a year so planting one already a few years old will produce a nice large replacement in 10 years time. Wasn

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Well, Cankerworms are indigenous and Willow Oaks are indigenous to the region. Both have always and will always be here.

Cankerworms will attack ANY deciduous trees. I'm confused about how you view replacing the existing trees with younger trees of the same or different species would make a difference. The cankerworms would likely decimate the younger, weaker trees. Do we want streets lined with Pine trees?

Potential Solution: BT is currently used and is not a traditional pesticide. It's a bacterium that likes to kill these inchworms, but doesn't affect groundwater or humans or etc. Banding should be mandatory and fines should be applied per tree and should be strictly enforced city wide as it's a city wide issue. The fines would help pay for the BT spray and the increased Banding would eventually bring the cankerworm to a less plague-like level.

The trees are weakend by the larvae; not killed. Destroying the trees due to a treatable worm infestation sounds like a frightening point of view on life in general.

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Cankerworms do not attack all deciduous trees but have a marked preference for Willow Oaks. Furthermore this is from the University of Minnesota on the subject.

Trunk Banding -- One widely-known method of treating cankerworms is the use of sticky barriers applied to tree trunks. As the wingless females crawl up the trunk to lay eggs, they are trapped in these sticky bands. Despite the publicity, there is little evidence that this method is worthwhile even in areas where most trees have been banded. The possible exception would be on a tree that is isolated from other cankerworm-susceptible trees.

Although the practice is fine in theory, it generally fails because of one or more of the following reasons: (1) people do not clean and renew the sticky material as often as the bands become crowded with moths; (2) people fail to recognize and band for the two species (one moving up the tree in the fall, the other in the spring); (3) unbanded trees in an area may produce young cankerworms that can readily blow to banded trees on silk threads. Furthermore, the sticky material is expensive, messy to work with, and tends to mar the appearance of the trunk for a long time. Thus, banding is not recommended.

There is no practical way to control this infestation and the fact that it is confined pretty much to an area where the trees have been kept in an unnatural state for decades indicates the efforts to control the worm by artificial means are folly at best. It's best to prune some of these trees away and replant with a variety of species, and over time so that future generations will also have the benefit of trees in Charlotte.

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Although the practice is fine in theory, it generally fails because of one or more of the following reasons: (1) people do not clean and renew the sticky material as often as the bands become crowded with moths; (2) people fail to recognize and band for the two species (one moving up the tree in the fall, the other in the spring); (3) unbanded trees in an area may produce young cankerworms that can readily blow to banded trees on silk threads. Furthermore, the sticky material is expensive, messy to work with, and tends to mar the appearance of the trunk for a long time. Thus, banding is not recommended.
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^You asked for advice from a qualified source since you didn't put much stock in what I had to say. So when I provided said information from a group that did research on the topic now you choose to discount that as well. It would seem to me that you really are not that interested in hearing anything realistic on the subject.

It amazes me the city arborist would choose to ignore the fact that these methods have shown not to work and the results in Charlotte speak for themselves. The only sure fire way to reduce the threat of these cankerworms is to change the unhealthy situation that is allowing them to flourish in the first place. These efforts are only prolonging the inevitable, and are short sighted IMO, because when these trees all die at once, the area is going to be pretty barren for decades.

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^You asked for advice from a qualified source since you didn't put much stock in what I had to say. So when I provided said information from a group that did research on the topic now you choose to discount that as well. It would seem to me that you really are not that interested in hearing anything realistic on the subject.

It amazes me the city arborist would choose to ignore the fact that these methods have shown not to work and the results in Charlotte speak for themselves. The only sure fire way to reduce the threat of these cankerworms is to change the unhealthy situation that is allowing them to flourish in the first place. These efforts are only prolonging the inevitable, and are short sighted IMO, because when these trees all die at once, the area is going to be pretty barren for decades.

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