Below are some references, and of course there are lots more. The evidence does suggest that wound treatments/disinfectants are likely to be ineffective or harmful. Although foresters often replace cores after examining them, with the idea it will prevent entry of insects and pathogens, at least one paper has shown that plugs are deleterious. That makes sense because they may interfere with wound closure at the cambium, prevent drying, and provide substrate for buildup of inoculum in the hole before invading the wound. I'm not aware of a paper showing that sterilization of borers and bark surface reduces infection, but it can't hurt. Carrying bits of infected wood from one tree to another certainly provides more inoculum potential than a spore. If there is concern by managers, it seems a logical thing to do. One paper in the list below (Weber) concludes that boring into a decay column does not result in long-term expansion of the decay column, but of course that could vary with tree species. Unfortunately, there are lots of published examples of increment borer wounds leading to disease, so it is difficult to assure people that it won't. Berry FH. 1978. Decay associated with borer wounds in living oaks. Broomall, PA. Research Note NE-268. 2 p. Clark FB. 1966. Notes and observations: Increment borers cause serious degrade in black walnut. Journal of Forestry 64(12):814-814. Dujesiefken D, Rhaesa A, Eckstein D, Stobbe H. 1999. Tree wound reactions of differently treated boreholes. Journal of Arboriculture 25(3):113-123. Hepting GH, Roth ER, Sleeth B. 1949. Discolorations and decay from increment borings. Journal of Forestry 47(5):366-370. Houston DR. 1971. Discoloration and decay in red maple and yellow birch: reduction through wound treatment. Forest Science 17(4):402-406. Kessler KJ, Jr. 1974. An apparent symbiosis between Fusarium fungi and ambrosia beetles causes canker on black walnut stems. Plant Disease Reporter 58(11):1044-1047. Lorenz RC. 1944. Discolorations and decay resulting from increment borings in hardwoods. Journal of Forestry 42(1):37-43. McQuilkin WE. 1950. Effects of some growth regulators and dressings on the healing of tree wounds. Journal of Forestry 48(9):423-428. Weber K, Mattheck C. 2006. The effects of excessive drilling diagnosis on decay propagation in trees. Trees - Structure and Function 20(2):224-228. You may have found this study that quantifies, for one tree species, the efficiency of decay detection by this method. Stenlid J, Wästerlund I. 1986. Estimating the frequency of stem rot in Picea abies using an increment borer. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research 1(1-4):303-308. Jim Worrall Forest Pathologist Rocky Mountain Region US Forest Service 216 N. Colorado St. Gunnison CO 81230 (970) 642-1166 From: rg70200-forpath-bounces(a)lists.iufro.org [mailto:rg70200-forpath-bounces@lists.iufro.org] On Behalf Of Gregory Gilbert Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 11:03 AM To: rg70200-forpath(a)lists.iufro.org Subject: [IUFRO RG 7.02 FORPATH] Preventing infection after coring trees Greetings Forpathers- We are about to embark on a very large project that will entail coring a large number (a couple thousand) tropical rainforest trees to look at fungi decaying the insides of the trees. The trees are part of a long-term study, and there is significant (and reasonable) concern that we do no harm to the trees that might speed their demise. As such, there are very strong opinions about what we should do to the holes after we remove the cores. As the pathologist on the project, it is my responsibility to provide a clear, evidence-based rationale for what we do, and I'm seeking Forpath advice on the latest (preferably with published studies). I know there is plenty out there about not tarring or painting pruning wounds. I have a rather old publication on wound healing of cores in tropical trees that showed pretty rapid sealing of drill wounds (through a variety of mechanisms) (Gilbert and Guariguata 1996 Biotropica 28: 23-29). But I'm not finding much empirical work out there on what should best be done to handle deep wounds like trunk cores on trees. Any advice -- your personal observations, citations, rationale for different approaches - would be greatly appreciated. What would you do to protect trees from infection after coring? Thanks very much, Greg ************************************************************************************************************************* Gregory S. Gilbert, Ph.D. Director, SCWIBLES GK-12 Training Program Professor and Pepper-Giberson Chair tel: (831) 459-5002 http://scwibles.ucsc.edu Environmental Studies fax: (831) 459-4015 Co-Director, CenTREAD 1156 High St. ggilbert@ucsc.edu<mailto:ggilbert@ucsc.edu> http://centread.ucsc.edu<http://centread.ucsc.edu/> University of California Research Group Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA http://people.ucsc.edu/~ggilbert Si no usas la cabeza, alguien por ti la va a abusar. Rubén Blades ************************************************************************************************************************* This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.