Had a knock on the door from a tree surgeon who knows the neighbour in the house near the tree. He was saying the tree (horse chestnut) should be felled because it has miner moth. I'd rather not see it come down and would like to try to save it if possible. It is under a protection order too. Does it need to be felled or is it just needing some attention?
by PSquidge
9 Comments
If he knocked on your door he just wants money
It’s very rare for leaf miners to kill chestnuts repeated infestations can cause problems over YEARS but generally it’s just something that makes your tree ugly. If you want to do something about it get your own arborist never trust the vultures going door to door.
Pretty much every Horse chestnut in the uk has leaf miner and it’s been pretty bad this year. It won’t outright kill the tree but without intervention then long term it can due to ot limitingthe trees ability to photosynthesis. The best course of action is to collect and dispose of all the leaf fall in the Autumn and do this annual to reduce the population of the leaf miner (they overwinter in the leaf litter).
Other than the fact that it has a TPO with which the local tree officer would be the one to make the decision on whether it could be felled, I wouldn’t trust the word of anyone knocking on the door touting for work
If someone comes to hour door that you don’t know “never ” answer the door ” the tree has been growing like that for 100 years , no need to cut it now .
Been growing like that for 100 years . No need to cut it now .
I agree on getting another opinion. Here is a cut and paste.
“At high population densities, HCLM caterpillars can destroy most of the leaf tissue on an individual ae the natural autumn leaf fall. The caterpillars can cause severe damage to horse chestnut leaves on an annual basis. Once established, HCLM will quickly become ubiquitous across European horse chestnut trees at a location.”
“However, HCLM does not significantly impair the trees’ overall health, and the effect is mostly aesthetic. Research has shown that HCLM can attack up to 75% of the total leaf area on the trees, but that the loss of subsequent photosynthetic leaf tissue only reduces the total carbon assimilation by, at most, an estimated 30-40 per cent over the growing season. The reduction is much less than the total leaf area affected, because the majority of damage caused by HCLM occurs late in the season, after the tree has completed most of its photosynthesis for the year. As such, the general tree condition and stem radial growth are not affected by HCLM, even over repeated annual attacks.”
https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/fthr/pest-and-disease-resources/horse-chestnut-leaf-miner-cameraria-ohridella/
Best of luck!
I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
If the black thing on the last picture is Kretzschmaria deusta, a highly dangerous mushroom for the tree, you should get it felled!
Let that be checked out thats the main consern here the rest is fine
“Felled” and “removed” are very different terms. I’m not sure where exactly he plans on felling that tree.. but it’s gotta smash some items of interest.
> tree surgeon
I would strongly recommend checking his credentials, especially since he’s clearly going door to door to drum up business. Anyone can call themselves anything and lots of landscapers have “arborists” on staff who are barely beyond glorified tree removers.