Termites in a large water oak

The very corner of my home yes - its a ~70ft tree and it is ~50ft from the front corner of my house.

I don’t think termites damaged your tree…I think they are eating dead wood.

It is probably on it's way out and will fall eventually. The termites are just doing what they do, eating dead or dying wood. I advocate keeping dead standing trees whenever possible, they provide a lot to nature, but when it is a threat to your home or other structures it has to come down.

You could get it checked out by an arborist and go from there.

You can treat the tree.

Get Taurus SC, spray .8oz/gallon around the base of the tree and drill holes around the base of the tree in the ground. It will kill them but a water oak is more than likely rotten in the inside if I had to guess.

I treated all my oak trees like this after consulting a pest control store. He said repeat every 3 years. so far it is working nicely.

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Three years ago a 70' water oak on my rear property line simply laid over during a light rain

Tree_Fall
Member since Mar 2021

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Checks out

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It was hollow about 20' up the trunk, and the void had been packed with mud by the termites. The tree simply became too heavy to be held by the roots which were also infested.

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Any way for a non-expert to tell if your tree is in a similar condition? I took down a Maple tree in my backyard after Ida because we noticed termite trails on the bark while checking around for damage. Had a mud packed hole all the way up the trunk, so we decided to quickly take it down before the insurance adjuster came to the house; just in case.

I still have a 50' water oak that is on the fence line and about 10' from my shed, 25' from my house, and 40' from my neighbor's house.

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Any way for a non-expert to tell if your tree is in a similar condition?

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I asked the same question of an arborist who told me that mud tubes around the base of the trunk are the best evidence. That started me taking a very good look at a dangerously close to neighbor's house, big sweet gum. Two years later I spotted mud tubes on it. Rough bark and vines made them hard to spot.

Like you would do on your house, I scarped them off with a screwdriver and found them rebuilt within a day. The tree came down. The infested cavity was pretty small, and the tree might have provided safe shade for a long time more, but I figured my liability might be great based on what I knew.

SE Baton Rouge is rumored to have a great many infested big trees.

So far, I've been passive as far as tree replacement. Two black cherries sprouted and are about 20' after 2 to 3 years. The tree is toxic, do some homework before using it.. I also have a Savannah holly from seed that is 10' at the same age. The foliage is very dense.

My plan is to transplant every tree sampling that sprouts in the yard into my many tree voids. Six trees either fell or needed cutting in last few years.