Question
Leaf 1
Hello we recently bought a house with 2 huge beautiful oak trees. They appeared to be very healthy until a few weeks ago in May I noticed brown fallen leaves all over the yard. When I looked at them they have tiny bumps sand in color that also fall off and it looks like sand all over the ground. This has been going on ever since with just one tree. I have looked all over the internet and can not figure out what this is. The sandy stuff is all over my porch and yard. It sorta of looks like tiny seeds. I thank you for any insight you may have. I am not sure how old the trees are but they are huge. The closet branches to the ground are probably 30 feet up. The house is 57 years old. I hope this helps.I am in Tulsa Oaklahoma. Pictures attached.
AnswerThe pellets are called frass. This is the excrement from caterpillar type insects that feed on the oak leaves. You should be able to see leaves with holes eaten out or partially eaten leaves. Water oaks will drop their leaves as new leaves bud out. The leaf in the picture has been eaten around the edges and I would think you could see some caterpillar activity either on the leaves or crawling on the trunk. To control the insects the foliage would need to be sprayed but on large trees this is almost impossible. The live cycle of these caterpillars does not last long and usually will occur only once a year. A lot of the time the caterpillar has already done its feeding and gone by the time the owner sees the damage. But the good thing is oak trees will re-foliate after they have had their leave eaten off and by the middle of the summer you can not tell there was a problem. The insecticide that is used is called Bt but would need to be applied when the caterpillars are young. I really would not worry about the trees more than likely the population of insects has done its thing and the tree will recover.
