What's killing my pine trees?

[dbdartman]

Something growing on five of my pines has killed a couple already & is hurting others. Never saw anything like this before & my research turned up nothing (which really surprised me). Anyone know what this is & better yet how to fix it?

Thanx,
DB

~edit~ Added pix

 

[clemsonfor]

Im a forester, yet i live here in the south and am better at forest pests vs ornamentals trees and pests. But first look with out reasearching is tip moths, yet they usually dont kill a tre just the top and cause multiple leaders to then grow. Not sure i can tell the pine or not, is that virginia pine or white pine? Lokking at the bark i would have to say white pine, but the branhing dosent look right. This must be a more norhtern species we dont have here , red pine with out looking i have no idea what this looks like.

I would say those find out what those casings are from and you have your answer. Spray the tree with an insecticied as well as the others to try and save it. Go to , i think, bugwood.net or maybe org. Its the forest service site and there are many pics of pests and damage they create. I dont have time now as im at work.

 

[dbdartman]

Thanx, I'm in NJ & yes it's a white pine. They've been there for 4 years.

I'll check that site, thanx!

 

[rekees4300]

Indiana pine problems, I've also lost several trees Purdue Pest Information | | borers of pines and other needle bearing evergreens in landscapes

 

[MossRoad]

Bag worms.

 

[MossRoad]

Sorry for the short reply.
Those are bagworms. The worm makes a shell out of silk and sticks pine needles to it. It looks like a limp small pinecone. However, if you look really close, the worms head, mouth and a few arms are sticking out of it and it hangs upside down from the branches as they munch along. They can devastate a tree in short order.

Google bagworm and look for control methods. I had to get a liquid insecticide, I believe it was Sevin, and spray the tree. Still, I lost a good chunk of the bottom of my tree that will never come back.

If you see a few of these one year, you will see many, many more the next. By year three, the tree is toast. So, if you have these weird little pinecones, poke them and watch them start squirming. Pinecones are not supposed to squirm! Kill them now or you are doomed.

 

[dbdartman]

Bagworm it is... and I seem to have it bad.

Thank you!

 

[mbosma]

I had these on 5 pines in southern Indiana for a few years. A couple of applications of a liquid insecticide sprayed from the hose fixed the problem. All but one of the trees lived.

 

[sal64]

i had same problem with my pine trees 2 yrs ago it was a worm. i went lo lowes they have a book in the pesticide department u can look at i found that worm in the book then it tells u wat pectiside to buy, i bought it sprayed it on my trees couple of times they havent come back yet.

 

[Thomas]

For while I was losing couple Colorado blue spruces damage started at top by turn brown,lot folks call them spruce bugs..cut the tree burn it killing eggs,so far it has work.