Question on Oak Wilt

[tim1234]

My Father just had a relatively healthy White Oak taken down.  It was growing at about 30° Angle and was about 80 or 90 feet tall.  If it had fallen it would have hit his house with malice!!  It's always sad to cut down such an old tree.  I counted about 121 rings on the trunk about 30 feet up.

Anyway now to my question.  I know we are now in the season to be worried about Oak Wilt.  My understanding is the virus is transported to the tree by a beetle that carries the virus.  The beetles are attracted to the fresh cut and in so doing transfer the virus.  What about a completely cut down tree?  Can the stump get infected and transfer the virus to other trees nearby or will the tree be dead enough as to not transport the virus through the root system.  The Michigan notice on Oak Wilt says that most Oaks are usually root grafted and can trasferr the virus to each other possibly killing all your Oaks in a year.

We sprayed the stump with an insect killer to try and discourage any beetles from munching on our stump.

What do you think.  Can Oak Wilt be transfered to healthy trees from a healthy stump that could get infected??

Thanks

Tim

[Ron Scott]

Oak wilt primarily infects red oak and generally not white oak. If the tree is a white oak with no signs of an infection you should be ok. The picnic beetle transfers the fungus from the wound of an infected red oak. The disease then transfers throuh the root system of the red oaks.

[stonebroke]

How far East does Oak Wilt get?

Stonebroke

[Ron Scott]

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/SPFO/pubs/fidls/oakwilt/oakwilt.htm

[tim1234]

Thanks for the reply Ron,

We've got a bunch of beautiful 100 year old red and white oaks and I hate loosing one of them.

Tim

[LeeB]

If you loose one of them to the wilt, you will loose all of them. It is an incidious disease. I've seen people spend 10's of thousands to try and stop it to no avail.