The Daily Ping

While walking the dog, I noticed a few trees in front of an apartment complex that had a two-foot white strip painted around the base of the trunk. I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was for, but figured it had to be for some good reason since it was obviously intentional.

According to this Yahoo! Answer, it’s to help prevent webworms (wwwworms?) from eating the tree because “webworms won’t cross a white line.” However, another responder to the question said that “You should NEVER paint the bark of a tree. A tree exchanges gasses through the bark much like our skin. Painting tree bark would leed [sic] to a trees [sic] slow death.” Another responder said there have been trees in his hometown painted for ten years and they’re doing fine.

FAQ Farmers have a similar answer, indicating that it’s an insecticide, but someone else says it’s mainly to prevent “sun burn fo [sic] the trunks of the tree.” Why do I have to [sic] so many words in these answers?

Are there any arborists in the house that can clear this up? Is it plain paint? Is it a mixture of paint and water? Or paint and an insecticide (mmm… smells good!)? Is it to prevent bugs? Sunburn? Is it unhealthy for the tree?

So many questions, and even more answers.

Posted in Everyday Life