Walnut twig beetle carrying canker fungus

[Cedarman]

Just saw a notice that the some walnut on the rocky mountain front range is being attacked by the walnut twig beetle that is carrying a canker fungus.  This looks serious.

[TexasTimbers]

What happens to the tree when this happens? I never heard of it. Degrade like birdpeck, death, or something in between? Where did you see this notice?


Edit: Curiosity got me and I Googled it. Wow. Nasty. The City of Boulder Colorado made over 200 residents cut down their walnut trees valued at over $1Mil  last year. The city had cut down 22 at the printing of the article (10/6/07).

It appears this is not a new problem. I found references to it as far back as 1928.

[Tom]

I wonder who valued the trees at over $1 million?  With the talk on here about people's ideas of their tree worth, that might have been one tree. :P

[urbanlumberinc]

Tom, that dollar value is based upon the replacement cost of the live trees, not the lumber value.  I've been getting my hands on some of these trees recently, and haven't yet paid for a single one.  The twig borer is a teeny, tiny copper brownish insect about the size of a grain of sand that bores into the smaller (under 2") branches of the tree and kills it from the top down.  The telltale sign of infestation is dieback from the tips, working it's way down.  As I understand it, by the time you start to see the tips dying back, it's too late - the tree is infested beyond help. 

[estiers]

http://wci.colostate.edu/trees_forest.html

The above website will give you a little information.  Under the heading Walnut decline.

[SwampDonkey]

I wonder who valued the trees at over $1 million?  With the talk on here about people's ideas of their tree worth, that might have been one tree. :P

:D :D :D :D

You sure it's a whole tree?

I have a type of twig borer in my walnut and butternut, but they hit the new shoots. I have some die back in the walnut, but I think it's more frost hardy related. All walnut up here have frost hardy problems.