[nobull56]

Just got back from a Swarm Call. It was a live Oak tree with LOTS of Honeydew & the bees were having fun with more feed then they could haul away!! I told them to wash the tree down every AM & PM with water to clean the 'Sweet Feed' away. Any other ideas??

 

[boddah]

leave it alone?

 

[txbeek]

What is "honeydew"? I'm familiar with the melons, but not anything that would be in a live oak or need to be "washed down".

 

[BeeDub]

What is "honeydew"? I'm familiar with the melons, but not anything that would be in a live oak or need to be "washed down".

When aphids feed on tree leaves they produce honeydew. One way to "knock" them off the tree is spraying with a spray nozzle on your garden hose, "washed down."

 

[waynesgarden]

Aphids aren't much of a problem for an oak tree, especially a healthy one. Little need to wash them off unless the honey bees that are attracted to the honeydew are a problem (which I can't imagine is actually the case.)

Wayne

 

[jwcarlson]

I cannot even imagine spraying down an averaged sized oak tree around it. It'd take forever!

 

[nobull56]

There are also 'Other' insects that produce a sweet byproduct that bees will collect & they are lumped into 'Honeydew' out here. This is a bug in the bark of a white oak that produces a foam & clear sweet sap like secretion, in large amounts.
The tree is by & over a wood deck with a 'Kiddy Pool' and has about three hundred honeybees working it! The infestation only goes up the trunks (three trunks) about twenty five feet. Five or six other trees have no signs of secretion, only the pool tree.

Other then cutting it down or spraying it with dormant spray this fall I'm stumped.