?Would y'all be interested in a forestry bug, disease or disorder of the day?

[customsawyer]

I always called it fusiform rust.

[Texas Ranger]

We had a particular problem with it in plantations.

[caveman]

Fusiform Rust
AFC - Fusiform Rust (alabama.gov)

[Don P]

On chestnuts and scarlet oak, which are hosts of chestnut blight I've looked for orange spores having been shown at some point that this was chestnut blight. Now I'm wondering which it is, scroll down to hosts here;

Fusiform Rust - Forest Nursery Pests (forestpests.org)

[caveman]

The source you cited lists a lot more alternate hosts besides the water, willow and laurel oaks mentioned.  I found a report done by Dr. Ed Barnard, forest pathologist that says oaks in the red and black oak groups are alternate hosts but that the three mentioned above are the most common hosts. 

As a sidenote, Dr. Barnard used to come to Florida's annual FFA Forestry camp, before he retired, to do a presentation on bugs and rot one evening during the hot, July camp week.  He was incredibly knowledgeable but unlike a lot of really smart folks, he could break down the information about bugs and rot in a way the kids and I could understand while keeping it interesting.  Below is another site that may be of use when looking at forestry disorders.
 Forest Health Publications / Forest Health / Our Forests / Forest & Wildfire / Home - Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (fdacs.gov)

[Texas Ranger]

On the lightning strike.

[beenthere]

TR
Understanding that is a painting. Good job of that. 

[caveman]

I'm going fishing in the morning, so I'll get a head start on tomorrow's disorder.  This one is a plant which is easy to spot this time of the year.  I guess I should have posted this one a week ago.


 

 

[Ljohnsaw]

Good old Mistletoe.  I'll have to get a picture of it but I think there is a variety that will live in my Incense Cedars.  At first I thought it was some sort of messed up branches.

[caveman]

Yes.  This is the mistletoe we have around here.  It is all green with opposite leaves.  It is a parasitic plant that is commonly found in water and laurel oak trees among others.
Mistletoe - UF/IFAS Extension (ufl.edu)

[ellmoe]

In my experience deer love to eat it. Early in my career, on a largely turkey oak/longleaf pine forest, heavy winds often brought down clumps of mistletoe. These clumps would not last the day.

[caveman]

 

 

 
Today's may be a little more challenging.

[Poquo]

Root rot mushroom?

[doc henderson]

Bar patrons on star wars?

[caveman]

Last month, at the Florida FFA Forestry Contest, that sample was on the disorder section of the event.  The forester running that section of the event said it was a conk/fungus that is one of the ones that is responsible for causing Butt-Rot of Hardwoods.  It was identified as Ganoderma lucidium, if I recall correctly.  A couple of hardwood leaves or roots or some other clues suggesting a hardwood would have been helpful, but this is what was provided.  
fsbdev2_043649.pdf (usda.gov)

[caveman]

 

 

 

 

 

 

This insect infests stressed, dying or dead trees or fresh cut logs.  You will notice that some of these pictured are in pines and others are in oaks, red and white.  The pictures featuring the well-manicured fingernails are on live oak.  It has a unique grain pattern but is classified as a white oak.
What is this insect?

[customsawyer]

Ambrosia beetle.

[caveman]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.  The ambrosia beetles feed on the blue stain fungi that they inoculate the host wood/tree with and then the beetles feed on the fungi.  The fungi feed on the sugars in the wood.  The ambrosia beetles leave a lot of clues:  Blue Stain fungi, small holes with dark halos, sawdust at the base of the tree, small, straw-like projections from the bark or ends of logs, and the beetles themselves are unique.
 https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5349704.pdf 

For those of us who saw logs into boards, we generally do not like bugs in our wood.  The ambrosia beetles leave the wood when the moisture content drops below about 20%.  There are several species of ambrosia beetles.  One of the imported/invasive varieties, is the Red Bay Ambrosia Beetle.  It has caused a lot of issues with Red Bay trees as it is the vector for a disease called Laurel Wilt.  This disease plugs up the trees' xylem, which is responsible for transferring nutrients from the roots to the rest of the tree.  This beetle/disease is also an important economic problem for Florida's avacado growers as it also affects those trees.  

If someone else wants to provide a forest disorder, feel free.  I'm kind of limited to what we have in my area and things I've thought to take pictures of.  Invasive trees and weeds may be on the horizon.

[caveman]

I'll have limited availability for the next several days due to attending an ag teacher conference and hosting two in-service continuing education sessions.  I'll try to find something to post while at the FFA Leadership Training Center, otherwise, I'll get something next week.  This would be a great opportunity for others to post some pictures of Kudzu, Gypsy Moth (sponge somethingoranother), Hemlock Wooly Adelgid or some other disorders/diseases that are pervasive other places.   

[Don P]

I think I have a couple in the gallery.

This can be the next one, bonus for wood ID
The log home dated to 1847, the ring count had us back about a century before the Revolution.





These are ambrosia beetles hitting freshly sawn poplar... which to be honest looks a little past its "best by" date.



 

I think this was the next morning getting ready for an early dip, in the borate trough. Part of id can be close examination of the frass.



 

I think there is one of some ambrosia maple I used in a writer's studio.
Here it is;


 
She liked it and we were talking about how it is often created by a beetle attack on a weak tree and often on a maple they are "taps", the tree is sweating sap. She began to describe a tree in the neighborhood that I knew immediately as she began talking about "the honey tree" and smelling it as you got near. It was a huge sweating old red maple covered in fermenting black funk that I was kind of hoping would have to come down while I was there, you know that was some good stuff  :D.

[Don P]

The top pic there is termites in a white oak log. The "tell" that it is a white oak is the size of those rays. The tell on the termites is their jaws are not strong enough to eat rays. If you see that ray pattern look below it and you'll usually find the mud tunnels back to earth. The frass is usually small to tiny pellets. It has been through the insect where the fungus farming ambrosia beetle above was simply clearing wood out of the way so it could grow shrooms in the sweet water flowing by. The dust will look different.

Hmm, who was the knight showing off the fomets in his pocket  :D

Our native subterranean termites have to go back to ground daily. From birth to death they are "on" 24/7 but they cannot survive in dry wood even a day. You could collect an entire colony, carry it up to the attic and dump it out, and they would be dead by dark. Dry wood termites in the tropics and deep south can swarm, hit the wall and enter, bad news.

I sawed out a 3 piece red oak corner at work the other day, or, it fell out when the sawzall touched it. The termites are long gone, I'm removing and replacing damage. By 10', up the hollow in the main 4x6 corner post was down to a ~1" diameter gallery where below that the lower part of the corner post pretty much turned to dust when it landed.

Rambling on, there is a little ppb damage down low in the sapwood there, starch eaters. No starch to speak of in the heartwood. Termites have the gut flora to get nourishment from cellulose. Sugar, starch and cellulose are the same building blocks assembled differently. The termite evolved to crack open the most abundant food source, most of us cannot even see food there. I had a biology professor that said whenever we figure out how to do what the termite does, starvation and energy will no longer be an issue.

Oh, the termites had mud tunnels over the black locust to get to the "soft" white oak. :D

[caveman]

Thank you, Don.
Great explanations.  I thought that was a white oak log, but not enough to go out on the limb and call it one.  It is interesting to me that the termites avoided the rays in the log.  Termites are formidable enemies to structures in our hot and humid climate.

[Don P]

I was splitting firewood today and got int this, which is common, not one thing but feel free to identify any of it, it is a series of afflictions (that I had better go read up on :D). This one has it all, pick any, including tree id.


 

 

[Ljohnsaw]

Termites and carpenter ants and some yellow fungus along with dry rot?

[caveman]

I would add wood borers to the list.  I'm not confidant enough to try the wood i.d. based on the pics.