Q. My mother’s mimosa tree was fine May 24. Something has
attacked it. I have attached photos of before and after, with closeups of a
couple of damaged areas. Please advise what we should do to help the tree. Mom
is heartbroken.
A. I am not positive but it looks like Carpenter bee
nesting damage. They usually bore holes into dead wood so I am guessing that
the limb may have been under some stress and has been dead for awhile.
If these
were from Carpenter bees then your Mom might have seen some large bumble bee
like bees in the area. These are large bees that resemble bumble bees but fly
faster and more zig zaggy and as brightly colored as bumble bees.
I am
sorry there is not much you can do but remove the limb. With that much apparent
damage I don’t think there is much you can do to save it. You can wait and see
since they tunnel into dead wood but it might be severely weakened with that
much damage. Mimosa is a fairly short lived tree and you were lucky to have it
as long as you have.
This damage did not happen overnight. It has been going on for quite some time but plants have a way of handling damage quite well for long periods before they show signs they have been weakened. This tree is in the same boat. It has been damaged for awhile but never showed any signs until recently.
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