What's killing the Pines?

[Bob_Young]

Between 3 separate properties, I have hundreds of pine trees. Mostly white pine but also some scotch and red pine. My Dad was a bug on planting these things and some he planted are over 30' tall with 15" trunks or more. I've got a few others that are much older and they're affected as well.

Nearly all of them have a large number of brown needles which they seem to shed, but then more turn brown. Finally the tree dies with very few needles anywhere and much sign of insect infestation. Don't know whether the bugs are causing the problem or if they're attacking the tree after it becomes weak.

A few trees appear unaffected while trees right next to them (spacing about 20') have been killed. We've had bad ice storms the past few years and many limbs came down. It took awhile to get to some of the plantings and get things picked up. Am wondering if the debris attracted pests that then moved to the live trees. However, slow cleanup was definitely not a problem on 2 of the 3 locations.

Some plantings seem to have a large number of affected trees, but none ever seem to die. Others look totally healthy and then, a year later, a half dozen trees are dead and several more nearly so. My douglas fir plantings, though heavily molested by deer, are unaffected.

Any information on what this is and how to fight it would be appreciated.
Bob

 

[AndyMA]

If ir was happening to me in Conn I would talk to the local Ag extension service at UConn. Cornell appears to have a similar program:

Cornell Cooperative Extension

Andy

 

[AndyMA]

Or try this one, the Federal USDA program:

Northeastern Area State & Private Forestry - USDA Forest Service

Andy

 

[MossRoad]

Look carefully at around the dead branches. Are there little pine cone looking things about 1-2" long hanging down all over the place? If not, ignore the rest of this post. If so, look closer at the little cone things. They are silk bags with pine needle camouflage and a little caterpillar inside. Bag worms.

 

[curly]

I have lost many on our 40 acres by pine beetles here (SC). They were already dead when we moved here 3 years ago, but they continue to fall. Like prev poster suggested, call the local ag people, may be something you can do.

 

[ToadHill]

Most of the damage to pines in the last few years has been caused by the Pine Bark Beetle. The trees are stressed from drought in the last few years and the beetle, which has been around for a long time, now does damage that the trees could handle under normal circumstances.

 

[Jimbrown]

In New york most likely the mountain pine bark beatle.
Mountain Pine Beetle

 

[OKnewguy]

It might not be the case with you northern guys, but here in OK, there is a nematoad (spelling?) that supposedly eats all of the little rots one the trees. As this happens the pines do not handle our summer months well. About 4 years ago, I lost 3 pines in a drought, and this was the cause (or atleast that is what the old timers claim).
Dave

 

[DieselPower]

I have a couple of hundred White Pines and Scotch Pines here and luckily the only ones that I have had die in the last couple of years are due either to being blown down by the wind or those pesky Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker Woodpeckers. The Sap Sucker Woodpecker pecks holes around the trunk in rings all up and down the trunk. The birds plan is that it gives bugs a place to get into the tree, the bad part is it kills the darn trees. Luckily I haven't had any bug problems with them (yet). However, it seems like all the hard wood trees are not doing so well. Most of the hard wood species in my area have one disease or another.

 

[Foothill Rancher]

Most of the damage to pines in the last few years has been caused by the Pine Bark Beetle. The trees are stressed from drought in the last few years and the beetle, which has been around for a long time, now does damage that the trees could handle under normal circumstances.

A number of years back Calif. was infested with this bug, wiped out large amount of trees, at my place it took out mostly sugar pines but some whites also.
You could watch the trees starting to die and turn brown, within a few weeks they would be dead.
The only fix was to cut the dead down and sell them or burn them. The big thing was to get any of the bark or limbs that were on the ground and burn them.
You would see sawdust and small holes in the base of the trees.
When our winters returned to a more normal temp and rainfall the trees again were able to fight the bugs.