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Mysterious bark damage on Hornbeams

hgmoseley01hgmoseley01 Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hi all, I’ve just come back from holiday and found the bark falling off my ~15 year old hornbeams. This has come on suddenly and does not look like squirrel damage, and appears to have occurred on multiples (4) trees simultaneously - does any one know what it is, or how I can stop it? Thank you.

Posts

  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    Do you have deer?
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    I have this damage in my garden.  I also have roe deer.  I blame the deer  - I may be wrong.  Have any leaves been eaten in typical deer fashion my pullinh the end of young brances though its teeth?
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    When I saw your pics my thought was roe deer and then I read other comments so perhaps that's your answer. I don't think it's squirrel damage either @hgmosley01
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
  • hgmoseley01hgmoseley01 Posts: 2
    Slow-worm said:
    Do you have deer?
    Thank you all for the advice, as far as I know I don’t have roe deer but from what I can tell this definitely isn’t deer damage - it’s happened all up the trees (higher even than deer can reach) and the bark seems to be peeling off and dropping on the floor. I wasn’t sure (as it happened on all my trees suddenly and simultaneously) whether it was some sort of infection, as I’m pretty sure it’s not deer/squirrel damage?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    It looks like grey squirrel damage to me …. not only do they sometimes eat the bark but they also take strips of it to line their dreys. I’ve watched them doing it in the woodland surrounding my last office. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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