Big Bluff Park Oak Tree Has "Super" Termites (Updated)

Fairhope, Alabama 

 

Update: The city council hired Chris Francis tree service to work on the tree. Cost $9,500.

 

Tree at 206 North Bayview.

Formosan "super-termite."

FORMOSAN SPECIES

The city council is expected to take action Monday to save a 200+ year old live oak tree in Bluff Park in the 200 block of North Bayview Avenue from Formosan termites -- and resolve other safety issues with the tree.

Pesticide is to be applied to kill the termites and other insects, dead wood removed, and cabling and bracing installed to support larger, heavy limbs.

Cables that supported a swing there that have become embedded in one limb are to be removed as well.

After a similar tree on Bayview at Magnolia Avenue was split in two by hurricane Sally last summer, it was discovered to be hollow inside. It is not known if if had termites too, or just rotted inside.

Similar tree destroyed by hurricane Sally.

From Wikipedia: "The Formosan termite (Coptotermes formosanus) is a species of termite that has been transported worldwide from its native range in southern China to Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa, where it gets its name), Japan, South Africa, Sri Lanka,^[1] Hawaii, and the continental United States.

The Formosan termite is often nicknamed the super-termite because of its destructive habits due to the large size of its colonies and its ability to consume wood at a rapid rate. A single colony may contain several million individuals (compared with several hundred thousand termites for other subterranean termite species) that forage up to 300 feet (100 m) in soil ... ."