Blog - disease

Welsh Battle over Badgers Begins

Welsh Battle over Badgers Begins

by Angus, 24 June, 2010, 10 comments

Do badgers spread Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) and, if so, is it sensible to kill the badgers to reduce losses to dairy farmers? On these issues, a great argument has been raging for several years but there are now likely to be a series of skirmishes on the ground in West Wales. Read more...

Horse Chestnut Woes! - Dealing with disease

Horse Chestnut Woes! – Dealing with disease

by Chris, 5 September, 2008, 25 comments

cankerBack in 2006, the Woodlands blog commented on the problems facing horse chestnuts, namely disease ( leaf miner moths, leaf blotch fungus, bleeding canker) and drought. The last of these may have disappeared for the time being as we have just experienced one of the wettest Augusts on record, however bleeding canker and the leaf miner continue to be problematical and are spreading. Read more...

ash tree and bud

Observing your trees – a problem with ash

by Prof Julian Evans, 30 November, 2007, 15 comments

Sherlock Holmes’ common criticism of his friend Dr Watson was: “You see but do not observe”. All of us are guilty. But once our attention has been drawn to a subject, we start seeing ‘everywhere’ what had before passed unremarked upon. And this is what I want to do with Ash trees. In May I began noticing that two Ash trees visible from the study window were behaving very differently. They were next to each other and both about 60 feet high. One flushed and developed normally, and was still in full leaf in mid-October, the other ‘struggled’ into leaf with a few leaves eaten, a few not appearing on shoots until August, and many shoots never flushing at all. Throughout the summer the crown was transparent with just a few, scattered leaves hanging on. Read more...

Ticks in woodlands and Lyme disease

Ticks in woodlands and Lyme disease

by Angus, 12 October, 2007, 17 comments

Anyone visiting woodland should be alert for ticks, which, though usually a harmless irritation, can carry Lyme disease. What is a tick? Ticks are Arthropods (animals with jointed legs). As they have four pairs of jointed legs, they belong to the Class Arachnida.This class includes spiders, scorpions, king crabs, and mites. Ticks are large mites. Mites are to be found almost everywhere.The vast majority are quite harmless; living on decomposing matter in the soil or leaf litter. A few, however, are blood-sucking parasites of mammals (deer are often hosts) and birds. These parasitic forms can spread disease as a result of their feeding activities. Read more...

More threats to the horse chestnut

More threats to the horse chestnut

by Chris, 25 August, 2006, 45 comments

We reported in this blog back in May that Horse Chestnuts were under threat from the leaf miner moth (Cameraria ohridella) and the fungus (Guignardia aesculi). Not to mention the effects of drought! Now there is another, greater threat to these stately trees – namely Bleeding Canker. The first symptom is often an area of bark where a yellow / brown / red liquid seeps out. In the spring, this coloured fluid is usually transparent but in warmer weather Read more...

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