Browning , falling needles on pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree may be a natural occurrence , calculate on the species and historic period of the pine tree . If the interior needles are browning and drop beginning in autumn , the pine tree diagram may simply be spill its older needle . This can occur every three to four twelvemonth in pine trees . If the John M. Browning and dropping of the needle is n’t a innate occurrence and is happening to the outer needles , your pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree may be suffer from insect infestation , disease or environmental stresses . You must first name the root cause of the browning , falling needle before take the appropriate actions to relieve the pine tree diagram .
Diagnose the Problem
Step 1
square off whether the acerate leaf browning and loss is due to drought terms . Needles that turn chocolate-brown and drop in tardy summer or early fall , begin toward the top of the pine tree and spread downward , is probable due to drought tension .
Step 2
discover an infestation of the Southern pine mallet in your true pine Tree . count for needles turning from yellow to reddish to brown within one to two month , as well as for xanthous - white tube of rosin that are about ¼- to ½-inch long on the bark and reddish boring junk in bark crevices .
Step 3
Look for browning , straw - like older needles with sizable , unaffected unexampled - increase needles to detect a European pine sawfly infestation . The sawfly larvae resemble caterpillar , are grey - green and have a lighter - colored stripe down their backs with stripes along each side of the body . The larvae usually tip in grouping , with several eating on the same needle .
Step 4
Inspect your true pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ’s browning , falling needles to bet for belittled white patch or flecks to observe spider jot . Spider mites may also leave net , sure-enough skin and eggs on the leaf . Spray the pine tree with a miticide in early spring or evenfall , when the touch are most active .
Step 5
name an plague of blanched pine weevils by looking for testis - laying tooth decay bored into the bark , beginning just below the bud cluster pole and extend to the concluding shoot . The white true pine weevil is a beetle - like insect with a long " snout " and an panoplied shell . If your pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is infest with these weevils , you ’ll see rosin droplets in spring on the old year ’s growth .
Step 6
Look for silky , ¼-inch - foresighted bags containing larvae to spot bagworms infesting your true pine tree . You ’ll see the larvae hatch and emerge in recent May or former June , feeding on the pine tree until late August or early September .
Step 7
Identify Sphaeropsis tip blight in your pine tree by looking for stunt , brownish young - outgrowth needles , spreading from the lower branches and upward . To handle your pine tree for this fungous disease , spray the full pine tree diagram with a fungicide during the third hebdomad in April and again in the second calendar week in May .
Treat the Pine Problem
preserve your pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree from drought terms by making small holes in the soil around the tree at the outer ends of the branches that are about ½ inch wide and 6 inches cryptical . sic a waterspout hosepipe over the hollow so that the water is train to soak into the soil , allowing the H2O to slowly drip for about three to six time of day . Repeat this irrigation once every three workweek between May until late August .
Treat your pine tree for a Southern pine beetle plague by spraying the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree with an insecticide containing lindane or chlorpyrifos until the bark is thoroughly wet . Spray the entire tree , specially the trunk and main branches that have grounds of mallet activity .
Control a European pine sawfly plague by removing and ruin all infested branches . Spray the entire true pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree with a horticultural vegetable oil or insecticidal soap that ’s labeled for sawfly , implement the treatment ideally in late April or early June when the larva are newly - hatched .

Control a white pine weevil infestation by spraying the entire tree with an appropriate insecticide , condense the chemical app on the upper branches and primal trunk . Spray the tree when the adult are most active , either in the bound or fall , because the chemicals will kill only the adults and not the larvae or bollock .
Protect your pine tree from dying due to a bagworm infestation by remove and destroying the silky bag cocoons during wintertime and spring , before the bollock incubate . Spray the pine tree with Bacillus thurnigiensis , malathion or diazinon during mid- to recent June , before the silky bags form .
Tip
Water and feed your true pine tree regularly while you ’re treating the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree for the root case of the browning , falling acerate leaf . Keep the tree ’s specialty up while it ’s attempt to rebound from an worm plague or disease .