Grinding Stumps Infected with Oak Wilt

[GaryBDavis]

Like a lot of Texas, we have some Oak Wilt around my place. It's not too bad and we want to keep it that way. All of the trees that have been affected so far are only live oaks. We don't have any red oaks here.

I need to cut down a few dead trees that are near the house and due to that reason, I'll be grinding the stumps down. One thing I'm unsure about is if leaving all that saw dust/shavings piled up on the ground will add to the spread of the disease. I'll be spraying the stump grinder with disenfectant, but that is about all I plan on doing.

According to what I've learned, live oaks have a tight bark structure and the beetles will not build nests in the dead live oaks as they would in red oaks. For that reason, you can cut them up into firewood and stack it without it contributing to the spread of the disease.

If you've ever seen a stump ground down, it leaves a heaping pile of saw dust. Especially with the bigger trees, it can be quite a mess to clean and cover up, so mostly you just tidy up the pile and leave it there for the grass to grow over.

Anyone have in specific knowledge about this particular issue regarding oak wilt?

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I don't have any knowledge about that specifically. I would say get ahold of a Certified arborist. Just Google it to find one in your area. It would make sense that those chips could be a source of spreading that. Burning them seems like the safest way to dispose off them.

 

[Maxfli]

I read something that burning was a bad idea as well. I have one huge dead White oak in the back that may have been killed by wilt. I need to take it out. I will be curious to see what others say on this subject.

 

[jinman]

Gary, you probably have seen this website, but I'll post it anyhow.
Texas Oak Wilt

It has some good info. The PDF file for identifying oak wilt is a 2-pg pdf and they got the pages reversed (page 2 is really page 1).

 

[RedRocker]

Thanks for that link Jim.

 

[gregoryhill9831]

Don't ever burn them, and do your best to treat them as soon as possible. They can and mostly do spread into the other trees through roots or insects.