July 30th - I see the horse chestnut leaf miners are back with a vengeance now. A moth lays eggs, whose larvae burrow through the large leaves, eating them and leaving huge brown scars, which suddenly appear around this time of year. A relatively new problem, it doesn’t seem to hurt the trees, but it causes premature leaf fall, and they look bad.
Experts are assessing links between this and the canker also affecting many of these stately, arboreal giants.
It’s a great shame, I love these trees and hope this ugly affliction soon passes. I cycled a loop around Shenstone and Stonnall and I don’t think there’s an unaffected tree anywhere in the area.
brownhillsbob posted this
