phoenix845•12d agoMost Upvoted

Read that a single oak can support 500+ insect species, changed my view on deadwood

I was always pretty quick to prune out dead branches on my client's oaks. Thought it was just cleaning up the tree, making it look tidy. Then I read this fact from some UK wildlife trust study - over 500 insect species rely on oak trees, and a ton of them need that deadwood to live in. Now I leave some dead limbs in the canopy if they aren't a safety risk. Has anyone else started leaving more snags after learning about the bug life?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_viola12d ago

My buddy Jake works at a nature center and told me about this one time they were doing a tree survey on an old oak. They counted 47 different types of bugs just from one dead branch they gently broke open, including some rare stag beetle larvae. He said the park ranger went pale when they realized how close they came to clearing all that deadwood the year before. Makes you really think twice about yanking every brittle limb out.

olivia_barnes9712d ago

Nah I still prune deadwood out. Leaving rotting branches in the tree just makes it look messy and invites more bugs that could spread to the healthy parts.