Saving the Apple Tree

I hope she forgives me.

The apple tree and I go way back to when we moved into this house. I've been here over 30 years and I estimate that, based on the size of the tree, it was planted about decade before. So it is an old tree.

The apple tree now. You can see where
the cut was made on the right. (Margo D. Beller)

A few days ago the boss of the lawn service I use came over with his chainsaw and cut off the rotting branch of the apple tree. He also, on his own, took off two smaller dead branches, saving me climbing up my ladder with my handsaw.

The result does not look so bad ... from afar. Once I paid the man and he left, I went out to look at the cut. I was horrified to see a large hole, and carpenter ants coming to investigate - or scurrying around after being disturbed. If carpenter ants were in the tree it wouldn't have much of a chance. If the ants didn't dig it out from within a hungry pileated woodpecker would start excavating from the outside to get at the ants. Either way, the tree would soon die.

I immediately drove to the local big-box store and bought limb sealant to cover the wound. 

Once I cleared the sawdust I sprayed the cut and into the hole.
(Margo D. Beller)

When half the dogwood died a few years ago, I had it cut back. The cut was clean, there was no rot in the center of the wood. But I wrapped the bottom of the trunk where pieces were starting to fall off. I must've done the right thing because the tree has survived, leafed out and even blossomed. I have gotten used to the way it looks when I am sitting on the porch. It is only when you go out and look at what was cut that you can get an idea of how much more there used to be.

The apple tree situation is different in several ways. For one, there was that big hole. So I sprayed into that hole to protect what I could reach. 

Another difference - I had the dogwood planted in 2007 at the same time as Spruce Bringsgreen, the blue spruce. So both trees are teenagers compared with the apple tree. 

The apple has survived my cutting down three overgrown, deer-attracting apple trees on the property, and one small apple tree that was killed by too many young bucks rubbing the velvet off their antlers. This remaining apple tree has survived sapsucker drill holes, a gall at the bottom and a hole in the trunk big enough for a chipmunk to hide in. It has produced apples every year, especially after it has been pruned. It has abided the squirrels and the house wren nest box that hung there for 10 years until it was moved to the dogwood. It has forgiven me for walking around with my long pole to whack the branches and bring down enough apples to use.

But I'm not sure it will forgive me this time.

The apple tree in 2023. 
(Margo D. Beller)

Last year, thanks to climate change, we had a severe drought starting in the summer and lasting into spring of this year, at which point we were inundated with an overabundance of rain. The apple blossoms appeared as usual, and then suddenly one-third of the tree went black. The squirrels and I had apples but they tended to be smaller. The apples were done by June 30 and the rotting branch was cut off that day. I should not have been surprised by that hole in the tree, but I was.

"I felt her pain, even though I do not have the problems an apple tree can have," Spruce told me after it was done. "But it was hard to watch."

The apple tree has been stoic. Her leaves are still green and, even with one-third of her gone, she doesn't look misshapen. But she isn't talking to me at the moment.

I hope she lives.

On Insects

"The Creator has an inordinate fondness for beetles."

-- J.B.S. Haldane

In suburbia we do a lot to protect our homes. We cut down tall trees before they can fall on them. We put in lights along the front walk, the garage and the front door to deter (or blind) any potential burglar and increase curb appeal in case we want to sell them. We put up fences to keep children and pets in and strangers out. We mow our lawns within an inch of their lives and then use our leaf blowers to get every last speck of substance off our property and into the street, where it miraculously disappears.

Lethal method 1: yellow sticky strips in the house plants
(Margo D. Beller)

Inside we clean germs - real or imagined - from surfaces. And if we see insects, we want them out ASAP.

That can be a tall task because there are a lot of insects.

According to my copy of the "Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America," there are over 24,000 types of beetles in 113 families in North America north of Mexico alone, so Haldane knew what he was talking about. They include leaf-cutters, ground beetles, ladybugs, dung beetles, scarabs, water beetles and long-horned beetles, among many others.

There are other insects including wood borers, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths. Some insects are beneficial, such as aphid-eating ladybugs and pollenator bees and butterflies. Some are bird food, such as the carpenter ants favored by pileated woodpeckers. 

And then there are the flies. Kaufman says there are 17,000 types on this continent, and they include pesky gnats, mosquitos and maggots. 

Lethal method 2: extension dust mop
(Margo D. Beller)

There are companies that make their living killing rodents, spiders and insects. There are also a lot of products homeowners can use to kill mice, spiders, flies, cockroaches and other space invaders, including ways that won't make you sick using them. 

Two years ago, during a drought, we were faced with an invasion of carpenter ants that had somehow gotten into one of our bathrooms. To get rid of them my husband (MH) went to a big box store and bought traps that contained poisoned sugar water. The hungry/thirsty soldier ants took the bait back to the queen and fed her. She died. Soon the colony started dying. Problem solved.

This year we have had lots of rain but we've also had another type of bathroom invader - drain flies. I would find what looked like a small fly hopping around the sink or on the wall. MH looked them up and we learned about drain flies, which, despite the name, are in the flea family and feed on organic matter in sink drains. (Organic matter? In my sink?)

Getting rid of them was as easy as using drain cleaner followed by pouring in a pot of boiling water. Problem solved.

But when it comes to insects the battle is never really over, it just moves elsewhere and with a different combatant. Currently, it is on the enclosed porch against fungas gnats.

"Fungus Gnat - Rondaniella dimidiata, Woodbridge, Virginia"
 by Judy Gallagher is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

I'd be having my morning coffee on the porch and something would flutter by. It would land on a surface and I'd catch it in a container and put it outside. Soon I started to see more of them, which is when MH again looked it up and I learned the name of this invader. (I'm guessing eggs had been laid in a plant I had outside and then moved to the porch.) I've since learned watering my plants has made the problem worse because wet soil helps them breed.

So I've stopped my catch-and-release policy and and have taken to elimination with extreme prejudice.

To my shame I first considered the flying insect spray we had in the garage, but that might (or might not, depending on the website article I read) harm the plants (and me). Then I went to the big box store and bought some yellow sticky strips to put on posts placed just above the soil in the pots to catch any adults. I'm letting the plants dry out and will then soak the soil with hydrogen peroxide to kill any eggs or larvae. I've also put out vinegar traps.

I hope all this works because winter will be here soon enough and the plants will have to go back inside. But so far I have found no dead gnats and the live ones are still flying around on the porch. 

My friend the spider caught at least three gnats. I'm hoping it gets more.
(Margo D. Beller)

So now I've gotten back to basics: smashing them with an extension dust mop. It gives me reach, exercise and the illusion I am doing something about the problem. 

I've also discovered I have an ally - spiders. Yes, those same critters others want to kill and get out of the house are spinning webs on the porch and catching some gnats. According to Kaufman there are 4,000 types of spiders in North America and I have found many of their webs in the house, on the lawn, in the trees and in various areas of the porch.

I am not crazy about spiders in the house because their webs show me where I have been lax and really need to clean. But they are catching insects, and on the porch spiders are more than welcome to spin their webs and gather as many gnats or anything else as they want.  

A Knocking at the Tree

A woodpecker's drilling/Echoes To/the mountain clouds.-- Haiku poet Dakotsu Iida

Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon during a particularly hellish workday, I went outside into my backyard to get some air and listen to the bird sounds around me as I tried to calm down. That was when I heard the hammering. 

I looked around but there were no workmen at any of the neighboring houses, for once. So I followed the sound and looked at the nearby trees. That is when I saw the pileated woodpecker.

Backyard pileated woodpecker
(Margo D. Beller)

Back in early December I mentioned seeing this type of woodpecker - the largest of the woodpeckers in my part of the world - battering a dead tree in search of carpenter ants, its favorite food. I stood and watched until it flew off. Now, here was another one digging into what I took to be a live tree in the corner of my neighbor's yard, abutting a corner of mine.

My first thought was, uh oh, that tree will be gone in two years or less. If a pileated comes knocking it usually means the tree is infested with the ants and will soon die. The tree looked healthy, but then again so did the ash tree I had to cut down once all the little holes created by emerald ash borers were pointed out to me. This particular tree is not on my property so there is no reason for me to look closely at it. But the pileated obviously saw or smelled something that made it want to stop.

But it wasn't alone.

For as I was looking at the pileated with my binoculars and saw the red "moustache" that told me it was a male, I discovered that above it and picking at a smaller branch was a second, female pileated. Now I started to wonder, could the male be building a nest? I've had plenty of nests within sight of, or on, my property but not a woodpecker nest hole. 

The holes left behind
(Margo D. Beller)

According to Cornell's "All About Birds" information on the pileated: 

The male begins excavating the nest cavity and does most of the work, but the female contributes, particularly as the hole nears completion. The entrance hole is oblong rather than the circular shape of most woodpecker holes. For the finishing touches, the bird climbs all the way into the hole and chips away at it from the inside. Periodically the adult picks up several chips at a time in its bill and tosses them from the cavity entrance. Pileated Woodpeckers don’t line their nests with any material except for leftover wood chips. The nest construction usually takes 3-6 weeks, and nests are rarely reused in later years. Cavity depth can range from 10-24 inches.

So I had to wonder what was going on. Was the male building a nest or just hungry?

I went for my camera. By the time I returned the female had left but the male was still hammering away. I took some photos. Then I had to go back to work.

When I looked out an upstairs window about 90 minutes later, it was still hammering. But by the time I got downstairs and outside it was gone. My husband had been watching the bird but, he said, a squirrel had spooked it off. In fact, the squirrel was on the next branch. That's when I saw there were two holes, the original one and one above it, slightly smaller because the woodpecker didn't get as far into it before it was spooked off. 

The squirrel on the nearby branch
(Margo D. Beller)

So it was only looking for food, not making a nest. I checked the tree for the next few days before finally acknowledging it wasn't going to nest in my yard. The Cornell people confirmed that for me with a chart showing pileateds nest between mid-May and mid-July in most of its range, not mid-February. (Its range is almost like an upside-down U, mainly the eastern continental U.S. going up into southern Canada and down into the Pacific northwest.)

Now I can watch that tree and see how long before it comes down, and which way it will fall - away from my yard, I hope. In the meantime, maybe some of the smaller yard birds can use one or both holes as a winter roost.

Ant-mageddon

If an object A exerts a force on object B, then object B must exert a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction back on object A.

-- Newton's Third Law of Physics

If something happens, there is an unintended consequence.

-- Margo's corollary

Until we finally got some relief in the form of showers and some cooler air, it had been so very, very dry in August. What rain we got prompted the dogwood to put out some fresh leaves, but for the most part the tree is dry, brown and forlorn. What birds came into the yard - including, briefly, a hummingbird -- came to the water dish to drink before flying off to forage.

Then, with a turn of the calendar page, cooler air came with winds out of the north. Overnight, birds that were scrounging for whatever they could eat took off to the south and wetter, greener pastures. Fall migration has begun.

Meanwhile, our house got carpenter ants.

Carpenter ant (Pixabay)

According to the Orkin pest control people, there are 24 types of carpenter ants ranging in size between 6 millimeters and 20 mm. They are not like termites that eat wood and weaken structures. These ants are so named because after mating (and the male dies): 

"The queen typically seeks a small crack in a wooden structure. She then closes herself inside that chamber, and lays the first batch of eggs. She remains inside the chamber until her first batch of eggs becomes adult workers. During this time, the queen uses her stored fat reserves and wing muscles for nourishment.

"The queen provides food for the young by means of her salivary glands until they become workers capable of foraging. The queen looks after her first brood, and, once grown, that first brood of adult workers takes care of subsequent broods."

That includes tunneling out more wood to expand the colony. 

So when it got dry and the ground got hard somehow -- squeezing through a window screen? hitching a ride on my jacket? -- two queens got into the house, converged on the small bathroom off our bedroom and started creating colonies. 

I was slow to notice this. I would see one ant, grab it in a tissue and throw it out the bathroom window. If it was in the sink, I washed it down the drain. But then I saw a couple, got one and saw the other run behind the sink. Another time I turned on the water and two ants came out of the overflow hole.

(Muero/Wikimedia Commons)

I told my husband (MH). He went out and bought ant traps baited with poison. It didn't seem to slow them down. I told him I thought the ants were in the bathroom because they wanted liquid. He went back to the store and bought liquid-baited traps - sugar water with poison. The ants lap it up, take it back to the colony and regurgitate it to feed the queen and the young. When the queen and young die, the colony falls apart (the workers eventually die of the poison, too).

I base the rest of this tale on what MH told me because I refused to go into that bathroom until the colony was dead, and that took almost two weeks.

He put out the liquid bait and when he next checked he saw dozens of ants lapping it up ("like crack," he said) and following the scent trails of other workers back to their queen. I had thought there was only one colony, behind the sink. No. He said there were bigger carpenter ants climbing up the bathroom wall and going into a hole created when I put in a new towel rod in a slightly higher position. I hadn't plugged the old hole. Now there was a colony of who knew how many ants swarming behind the bathroom wall.

Dozens of ants.

MH, with his scientific bent, would check on the situation twice a day and report on what he thought was a fascinating situation. I made him keep the door closed and blocked the area at the bottom with a towel. Thankfully, he didn't film Ant-mageddon.

After about 10 days he said he thought things were done. Still, I was slow to return to using that bathroom. However, when I did finally go back and turned on the light I found a mess caused by sloppy, sugar-crazed ants that made things sticky everywhere. The next weekend I plugged up the hole and scrubbed both the wall and the floor (the traps were removed but put back after the floor dried). 

As invasions go, it could've been worse. It could've been hornets (we've had them nesting behind the bathroom window sill) or wasps (which have been found in the attic) or cockroaches (never, thankfully). We even once had a winter invasion of the smaller pavement ants. 

As long as houses are built in former forests or on former meadows and river valleys, there are going to be insect invasions. And as long as something -- global warming perhaps? -- creates heat and, in my area, drought, there will be creatures great and small doing what they must to survive, including coming into houses.

I am still finding carpenter ants, but they are in ones, not dozens. At least for now.