WACO, Texas — Oak wilt is a fungus that is carried by a beetle and spread throughout the central U.S. Not only can the spread of the infection cause irreversible damage and even death to a tree, it can hurt property values as well, said Waco tree worker Andrew Moody.
"They can bore into the tree," Moody said. "It's a vascular disease so it constricts the tree's ability to send nutrients into the tree which causes a fairly rapid decay."
Moody said infection could be up to a year for a red oak tree, and just a matter of weeks with a white oak.
Moody said the way to prevent the infection is to keep the tree as healthy as possible, a task made difficult by the Central Texas weather patterns. Moody said the drastic changes makes trees more susceptible to fungal infections.
"There's also things like soil health," Moody said. "When you have a lot of clay in the soil, and it gets more compacted, there's not a lot of air movement and it can lead to a lot of issues and the spread of fungal infections with trees."
Though there's no cure to the infection, preventing the spread to trees includes getting adequate water to the trees during the summer and setting an adequate mulch base.
"Adequate watering will reduce the stress on the tree, as well as properly pruning and preventing broken branches," Moody said.
Moody said the broken branches can attract the beetles as "new wounds", so reducing stress on the tree from root to tip is the best way to prevent infection.
Moody said oak trees should be pruned between February and March, as the beetles generally come between April and September.
"You want to have a nice canopy that's even, a lot of people will clean up the inside of the tree and that's called 'lions tailing'," Moody said, "And that causes the tree to grow out faster and it has less ability for the branch to be stable in the long run and lead to breakages."
Moody said if you have concerns about potential infections, you should call an arborist that's licensed to treat them. If leaves start to wilt rapidly and the tree begins to die off it could be the sign of an infection.
Moody added that narrow spectrum fungicide or insecticide can be used to kill off the "bad guys" and keep the "good guys" when treating trees.
"Whatever we can do to get rid of those beetles it's the best thing we can do for the rest of the community," Moody said.
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