Wormy red maple?

[tapper]

I have a forester telling me that tapping red or soft maples tend to make them wormy and that no one taps soft maple. I have used soft maple for 16 years and never heard this also did a search here and on sugarbush info with no results. I have also cut down some of the tapped soft maple for firewood and no worms. Has anyone experience this? Is it a regional problem or maybe teachings from many years past? Please informed comments only And a thought from Dr Perkins would be appreciated.

[northwoods_forestry]

Wormy? Never heard such a thing. As for that forester saying that no one taps soft maple, that pretty much sums up how much he knows.

[happy thoughts]

Ditto what northwoods said. Sounds like he needs to learn a thing or two about sugaring. Find another forester, lol. Or have him check his facts with the Penn State Cooperative Extension. They certainly wood not agree with what he said about tapping reds.

[red maples]

I have seen weak, dieing or dead reds with little pin size holes in the bark but never actually borrow into the wood. and uh I would find another forester...95% of my trees are reds!!! and most of them seem to heal over faster than the few sugars I have. the majority are very vigorous trees.

[sjdoyon]

you might want to look for a new forester.

[heus]

Had a "lumberman" 2 years back make a comment that we shouldn't be tapping reds. Your guy simply doesn't know WTH he is talking about.

[Russell Lampron]

If we didn't tap red maples some us wouldn't be tapping. I have been tapping some of mine for close to 10 years and haven't noticed any worm infestations. I know that a lot of the old timers wouldn't tap the reds. The ones that I have put buckets on were very finicky. Some would run good, most will run very little and some not at all. Tapping all buckets I can see why they didn't tap them.

[twocanines]

The forester that did my plan also did the plan for a big outfit nearby. That's how the whole thing started for me. The forester saw the potential new stand we had. And I was just as surprised then to learn that this other outfit with an RO and eight to ten thousand taps on vac lines were tapping mostly reds.

[jimsudz]

Wormy soft maple is usually soft maple that grows on wet ground. Soft maple on high ground is usually white with a tight heart sometimes they can be wormy depends on the area they come from. If you cut down a soft maple and the heart is spider shaped it is wormy.The worm makes a small hole about a 32nd in diameter.Tapping a soft maple will not make it wormy,it will make it tap holed. If their there tap them.

[Gary R]

Tapper, if you want more technical info, I'd check with Penn State School of Forestry or Dr. Peter Smaldage, Cornell Maple program.

[happy thoughts]

I 'd also suggest contacting the director of the Ag extension maple program at Penn State, Bob Hansen, who is located in Bradford County. He has been very helpful to me in the past. Contact info is here:

http://extension.psu.edu/maple-syrup/contact-us

[tapper]

Thanks guys for the comments. This forester does not work for me and I have recently learned he works with another local syrup maker.