Oak Tree Blight of Some Form??

[Richard]

Walking the dogs other day, noticed clusters of dead / brown leaves on trees. Kind of ignored. On other areas of property, noticed even more of them. Got to looking and as best I can tell, they are all Oak trees. Might be red, white, "pin" oak (I don't know all the varieties by their leaves BUT the leaves were the rounded, pointed and one has what I'd call the elongated/skinny centerline which I'm thinking is a pinoak.

You can see the clusters. Looking like this is on every single oak tree that I can see.

Down our immediate road, same thing. Yesterday, I was 20 miles down the highway..... remembered this and was looking for this along the highway. Didn't see anything so it's local to some degree.

 

[jda196162]

if this is an area where Cicadas have appeared, then this probly is the results of them. they come up from the ground, mate, then the females burrow into the tips of tree limbs and lay eggs.

 

[5030]

Looks like Oak wilt to me. We have it as well and the trees recover from it in the next growing cycle.

 

[ning]

I doubt this is it, but around here sometimes the oaks don't always lose all of their leaves over winter - the leaves are dead but they don't necessarily fall off, and the next year you'll see dead leaves along with the live.

 

[Richard]

These aren't dead leaves from last year. I feel 99.99999999999999999999% sure about that. Too perfectly splotchy among all the trees.

We have zillions of cicadas. In fact, wife has some kind of (minature?) Weeping Willow "tree" though it's only like 5' tall and hasn't really grown over the last say, 5-years that it's been planted.

Cutting yard today, brushed up against this willow thingy.... I got accosted by hundreds of bugs. I thought they were cicadas but driving by on another round, didn't look like the red-eyed version.

But yeah.... somewhere I've got a picture. Looks like someone took roughly 1/2" drill and just sat on the ground drilling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of perfect little holes. Years ago, when digging something (backhoe), I found some kind of bug buried in the dirt. I now realize/believe it was a cicada in that dormant / buried state.

Never heard of Oak Wilt.... hopefully that's what it is and it's not a terrible thing. I recall years ago when the pine beetle came through here. It was really kind of interesting. Over the course of spring, summer and fall, you could simply see a line of brown/dead trees sweep across the woods. Fortunately, this was right when they were selling/had sold the timber on the farm so they cleared them out first thing and caught it fairly early (I presume all trees were good for intended purpose)

I plucked a gathering of these dead leaves off a branch today. Didn't notice anything odd about them.... just looked like a cluster of dead leaves.

 

[Michiganguy]

I was under the impression that some oaks, such as reds, can have a high mortality rate when infected with oak wilt.

 

[BnRidge]

We have oak wilt here. 15yrs ago it was in western WI. What I saw here in SE WI since 2014 were a few red oaks dying here and there, then more, then dozens in 2019 or so. Then the white oaks, here and there, then more, then dozens. Most of the older trees are now gone (150-200yrs). When I count the rings of the oak wilt trees, I see healthy growth until about 7yrs before, then growth slows, until they brown out all at once and die. I know now to notice if the canopy is green and growing, or if the tips are dead and dying back. If dying back, they'll be dead in a few years. Usually there are no unusual brown areas of leaves like the OP has mentioned. It's either all or nothing.

Gypsy moths are another thing now. Started in Pennsylvania decades ago, very slowly moving west, now here as of last year. They go for mostly the oaks here, strip them to bare wood, and make the area look like nuclear winter or forest fire went through.

When I stand on an oak stump and look around, I notice many many young trees other than oak, like hickory, maple, cherry, hackberry. So there will be a succession and change coming.

 

[dodge man]

I agree it’s probably oak wilt. We have it around here also. If the leaves are rounded on the ends it’s a red oak and they are more vulnerable to it where the white oaks may survive it. Once it hits the tree it seems to kill it within a year.

 

[oosik]

We don't have any type of oak here. Unless somebody has planted it.

However - we DO have the pine bark beetle. Does the same thing. Kills the pine trees. I have four pines that died last year and fell. Just beyond my yard. Mother Nature is handling that problem.

By the time you notice that the tree is dying - it's usually to late to do much. The beetle has moved on and the larva have hatched.

The recognized "cure" - cut and burn the infected tree(s). I've tried this. It does not seem to help.

I've never had the beetle attack a mature, large pine. They seem to focus on the smaller ( 12" on the butt and less ) and, perhaps, weaker ones.