What You Need To Know About Oak Wilt in Kansas City

So, what is Oak Wilt? According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, Oak Wilt is a lethal disease of oaks, especially species in the red oak group. The fungus, invades the trees, causing it to die. In Missouri, the oak wilt fungus is spread primarily when sap-feeding beetles carry oak wilt spores to fresh wounds during early parts of the growing season (this is why we only trim Oaks during dormant season). Once established in a tree, oak wilt can move through root grafts connecting nearby oaks, infecting them all.

The most distinctive symptoms of oak wilt are the color of the leaves. While healthy leaves are green, oak wilt leaves veins will be yellow or brown while the rest of the leaf is green. This, in the tree world, is called "death of the vein" and is considered diagnostic.

This is detrimental because, once leaf symptoms occur, live oaks will usually die within three months to a year. Very few oaks can survive for many years in decline, but remember, this disease spreads through the roots to connect Oaks infecting them as well.

How can Oak Wilt Be Prevented in Kansas City?

Avoid pruning oaks during the spring & summer — plan for the dormant season.
Do not bring contaminated firewood on to your property.
Paint all injuries on the oak with a pruning paint (read more here)

What are the treatments for Oak Wilt?

Oak wilt is not a manageable disease to get a handle on. If there is more than one oak in your neighborhood, rarely, are we able to discover which of the other trees are infected too and before the disease has moved into oak leaves

the root system, total removal of the tree stops the disease.

There are treatments available. Call the Tree Doctor for more information or click here!

At Cartwright Tree Care, we love your trees and our customers, and we believe that the more people learn about their trees, the better we can beautify our community through our trees.

We have arbor consultants on staff that are serious about stopping Oak Wilt from taking all of our beloved oaks; please let us know if you have any questions about oak wilt or any other tree care questions.

We are always happy to help!