Dying white pine trees

Hello,

Can someone please tell me what is causing this? I have several trees in the yard and whatever this is seems to be killing them all from the bottom up.

Thanks!

 

From the white oozing from the bark it appears to be pine beetles. The only way to keep it from spreading is to take the affected trees down. The beetles cannot move from a horizontal tree trunk for some reason and will eventually die off. It can be a very large infestation and you not know it yet, however.

 

Here is a .pdf that will tell you a bit about borer beetles. The most common and effective treatment is to cut down and remove a tree when it starts showing stress. If you wait until the tree is already dead the beetles have likely already left for adjoining trees.

There are pesticides that can stop the beetles but they need to be regularly applied to all the surfaces of the trunk before the beetles arrive. Treating the tree after the beetles are in the tree has no affect. And as you expect a large tree is almost impossible to treat so again the usual treatment is to cut it down and remove it before the beetles can spread further.