Question

Beetle 1  

Beetle 2   I have a large (90 gal) live oak that was planted in my yard, in North Texas, last winter. It budded, lost its leaves, budded again, and has recently lost its leaves again. Right now it is trying to make new leaves. I noticed that the tree was "weeping" from all over its trunk, and have been staking it out for the last few nights, looking for insect activity. I caught a beetle (picture included) that made a nasty screeching noise when I grabbed it. Is this the cause of my weeping and injured oak?

Answer
Yes I would say the insect is the cause of the "weeping". It is is one of the Longhorned Borer Beetles in the family Cerambycidae, the Banded Hickory Borer, Knulliana cincta.
Borers infest oaks and other trees and will cause the sap to seep pout where they entered the bark. You can try spraying the trunk with an insecticide called Merit or Onyx. These insecticides will kill the insects under the bark. Borers usually attack trees under stress. So I would make sure the tree has water--water with 1 inch of water--place a pan under the tree and turn the sprinkler on and when the pan has 1 inch of water in it stop. Do this every third day unless it rains. With a tree this small a borer can cause major damage and could kill the tree if the trunk is girdled.