Question
QUESTION: We have a silver maple that is peeling bark and one huge limb appears to have been killed by bores. The center of the limb is dark with a kind of sawdust and is hollow. I know it is dead but can the rest of the tree be saved and if so how. The tree is about 30 years old and is about 2.5' in diaand 30 ft high.

Thank You

ANSWER: Spray the wound area and the trunk near it with an insecticide called Merit. This will kill the borer in the tree trunk. Borers usually attack tree that are under a stress so I would recommend that you fertilize the tree with 10-10-10 fertilizer at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter scattered around the tree and watered in good. Do this in the Spring and again in the Fall. Check with your local nursery for these products.

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QUESTION: Thank you for that answer and we will follow that advice.
A new question  .
The center of the limb in question has been hollowed out and is brown and dusty, is this some kind of carpenter ant or some other pest to be dealt with? Our concern is that it is happening to the rest of the tree. Is there some sort of systemic food that will kill these kinds of pests ?

Answer
It sounds like a decay fungi. More than likely came in as a result of the borer wounds. There is not anything that can be done for the decay in the woody cells of trees, To keep any further borer damage from increasing the hollow spray the Merit into the hole in the limb. The fertilizer will help the tree heal faster.