I have a maple and have spotted sap suckers on it before, always in this spot (for a few years). I wanted to learn more bc I love birds and sent a pic to chat gpt (I know) and it said this is actually decay and not good. I googled tree rot sap and saw trees that look similar.. this is close to our house and huge. What’s going on here and what should I do.
by fledglingbirdnerd
4 Comments
Located in Upstate NY
look into slime flux or wet wood
Yes, this is a bacterial infection called Slim Flux or Bacterial Wet Wood brought on by internal decay.
Trees can stand safely for decades with pockets of internal decay or even being completely hollow. The only way to know what kind of risk tree actually poses right now would be to have a risk assessment done by a qualified arborist in your area.
If it smells sour, this is a bad indicator. Based on the photo, their is a infection of something in the tree.