I discovered this Tree of Heaven at Longbeach farm about two years ago, it is planted alongside a run of Ash Trees, I strongly suspect that it was planted by mistake about 40 years ago by the previous owners of LBF. Well, contrary to its name, the 'Tree of Heaven' is a bit of a nightmare if left unchecked and can become invasive; the tree sends out root runners that then appear from underground, meters away from the parent. They then start to crowd out other trees and vegetation. Apparently it can use its own form of chemical warfare; sending out chemical signals that inhibits the grown of other plants. The sap is also problematic and has been linked (anecdotally) to causing breathing problems when cutting them down with chainsaws. Well we can't have that, so I cut slashes into the trunk and poured in Glyphosate (weed killer) while being masked up and wearing protective goggles just incase. I did not suffer any ill effects from my chain sawing activities! I made the cuts in autumn just as the tree was pulling all its sap and resources down into its root system in readiness for winter hibernation, this was to ensure that the Glyphosate was taken down into the invasie spreading root system. - I don't like using herbicides, but sometimes you have to break eggs if you want to make an omelet and my research indicated that there is only one practical way to deal with the problem. Glyphosate quickly becomes inert in the environment, so seemed like a safe choice to use in a controlled and limited way. Simply cutting tree down with no other intervention would have only made the tree send out more suckers, potentially causing a bigger problem, besides, rather than just cutting the tree down, standing dead trees are valuable habitat for birds, bats, insects etc, so I decided to leave the tree standing and hasten its demise by also drilling holes and chainsaw plunge cuts into the trunk to act as hibernation locations for a range of insects. I'm particularly keen to see if solitary Mason Bees will take up residence and use the drilled holes as cavities to lay their eggs. The tree is next to the pond so there is plenty of mud for the bees to use to plug up each nest cell. The bees should fill up the drilled holes with pollen and nectar, their egg and then a cap of mud, they repeat this process until the hole is full to the outer edge of the trunk; there may be as many as 6 to 8 bees in each drilled hole each having its own capsule to live in until its time to dig themselves out. Apparently they coordinate their excavation activity so they all emerge in a timely coordinated way. Hopefully I can capture them filling the holes and then film the new bees emerging as they dig their way out late inight the year.
