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Fixing galls in young trees

9 years ago

Hello all, we have 2 young trees in our backyard infected with galls. We think they are maple trees and the galls are still small, but numerous. Does anyone know what kind of gall this is? How can we fight this? We definitely do not want to remove this 2 trees - it will destroy our yard and cost $$ we don't have. Can we just clip the trees above the galls? Do we even need to address this? Will it spread to our burning bushes and anything else nearby? Thank you!

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Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis

9 years ago

I bet after leaf out someone can identify the galls.

My opinion is even if you eradicate the nests they will come back. This is an uphill battle. With big trees I am not sure if I ever heard of someone eliminating them. It is also something I associate with oaks.

What I would do if there are only a few is prune them off then give the tree a soil drench of Bayer Tree & Shrub evey spring for a few years as an experiment in removing them. Either way, good luck.

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Comments (7)

lucky_p
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Looks like horny/gouty stem/branch galls, as seen on virtually every pin oak in town here. Between massive gall infestations and bacterial leaf scorch, the virtual monoculture of Q.palustris almost the only oak that folks here consider planting in their residential yards is being slowly decimated. But the 'landscapers' just keep planting them...

Oh, and nothing about the twigs in that photo resemble 'maple'. I'm betting on pin oak.
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bengz6westmd
9 years ago
Hard to remove stem galls -- risk breaking the stem & hurting it more than the galls.

Lucky, my oaks for the first time got some stem-galls last yr. The only oak that didn't was -- my pin oak. :) But it's the only one within miles.....
lucky_p
9 years ago
beng,

I've been watching the gall infestations in town here steadily taking out 45-50 yr old pin oaks, left and right, over the past 15 years. Have seen a couple out in the woods here on the farm that are pretty heavily affected - but some that are 'clean as a pin'.

See an occasional small round stem gall on the white oaks around the farm, but there's a young bur oak in town that's 'eat up' with them. Was going to graft it into my collection, but I can't find any decent scions on it that aren't heavily infected.
wisconsitom
9 years ago
Yes, oaks, not maples. In some cases, it does make sense to remove branch or branchlet, but that is on a case by case basis. Obviously, if doing so leaves you with hardly any tree left, not a good idea.

The systemic insecticide might clear them up. I'm not a pin oak expert though, so maybe someone will chime in here with exact recommendations.

+oM
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 years ago
A systemic insecticide would do nothing to prevent gall wasps. It's usually recommended to not do anything, as control requires blanket spraying of broad spectrum pesticides and perfect timing.

Systemics are used to control pests that feed on the plants. Gall making insects do not feed on plant sap.

Click HERE for more information.
Jeff Alexander
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you all for the responses. Lots of very good information! I think for my one tree with only a small infestation I will prune off the infected limbs, but the other is so heavily infested it wouldn't have much left if I did so. Is there an average life span of trees that are infested? Is this something I should just let go until it dies 20-30 years down the road? Should I be concerned about this spreading to other trees and bushes? Thanks!

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