I just moved into a house and have been parking under this tree, and in the last two weeks it has been dripping sticky sap all over the drivers side of my car 🫠
I have to wash my windows and windshield off once every other day just to be able to see out of them.
I tried using google lens and it yielded no results. In central texas, I don’t want to get rid of this tree as it’s beautiful but I don’t know how much more sticky door handles and foggy windows I can take
by South-Ad-2552
15 Comments
It’s just an oak (maybe burr oak?), but if it’s dropping sap it’s getting damaged by something, probably insects. I’d get an arborist to check it out, jic.
I unfortunately can’t identify the tree for you, but I had this problem with two large trees and the issue turned out to be an aphid infestation. I had what I thought was sap covering my porch, my car, pretty much everything within reach of the branch overhang to the point where if I was standing outside during a sunny day it looked like it was drizzling very light rain under the trees, but it was actually “honeydew”, or aphid excretion. Horrifying to realize and I hope in your case it’s just sap, but probably worth looking into since it’s overall detrimental to the trees themselves if that’s the case.
Oak, maybe a black or red oak. Scarlet oak looks similar. Does it drop acorns?
Never heard of an oak dripping sap. Is it in a specific place or all over?
It’s an oak. Precious for the nature, if you have a chance to cover your car with something, do it. It worths for this beautiful tree. 🙂
Maybe I’m seeing things but is there any small webbing on the leaves? It *almost* looks like spider mite damage but I’ve never seen that on a tree before. This is coming from someone who has been battling spider mites on my houseplants all season
Lanternfly infestations also seem to produce honeydew. Harmless to cars finish but sticky and a pain to remove, drips everywhere beneath.
As others have said mites are a potential culprit as well, but I’d be looking to those types of insect/arachnid issues before blaming tree bro for this one
I don’t have an ID for you but if you have hard sap/pitch on your windshield/windows you can easily get it off with a razor blade.
There’s a certain part of the driveway that I avoid at the bottom. Normally does it have leaves and debris all over it during the fall season it has sap year round.
It’s a burr oak! You most likely have aphids on it as previous comments have mentioned, they tend to get bad in hot dry weather. They aren’t hurting the tree at all, mostly a nuisance tbh. Unfortunately not much can be done and I would definitely not recommend removing it just because of this. Carwash membership may be in your future 😬
You have aphids infecting the tree. Their honeydew is what is dripping on your vehicle. But the huge acorns of a Bur Oak can take out windows/dent cars if hit with a mower and launched as bullets.
Burr oak!
Aphid poop, many trees have the same problem (around my neighborhood it’s Birch trees, yours is some kind of oak)
Aren’t you glad that cows don’t fly?
Check the trunk for ants.
There are specific ant species that farm aphids. They have to commute up and down the trunk though and there are glue traps that you can put on the trunk to stop them.
It’s honeydew from aphids (poop)