Tree Question

[Bethany2386]

Is there a way that you can tell if a fruit tree has been treated or not? And what specifically can it NOT have been treated with. Are we saying sprayed with pesticides or is something else toxic to chins? I know a ton of people who have apple trees, but I want to know what can NOT be done to a tree...

 

[iayla]

You dont want it to have been sprayed with anything. You wouldnt want your chinchillas eating the bark and consuming chemicals of any kind, now would you?

That includes pesticides, fungicides, and any other chemicals that you could imagine. I wouldnt take wood from a tree that has been sprayed with anything, but perhaps thats just me.

Of course, even if they havent been sprayed, be sure to still boil & bake the wood to remove any underlying germs, bugs, bird messes, etc. Good Luck!
~Barb~

 

[Bethany2386]

I would never feed them anything that has been treated with chemicals, but I don't know what chemicals people use either.

What I would really like to know is if there is a way to tell that they have been treated ever. I have a friend who has fruit trees on his property and he has no clue if the prior owner had treated them. He said they hadn't been treated since he moved there for sure in 2006. Now, I have no way of knowing if they were ever treated by the prior owner. So, I was asking to see if there was a way in determining if they had.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Well, any new growth on the trees from 2006 to now wouldn't have any pesticides on them if this owner has never sprayed. I don't know anything about trees or pruning them but isn't it normally the newer growth that is pruned? I could be completely wrong though as that is not my area of expertise.

I do work at an entomology lab where we do a lot of work with pesticides though and many of the common pesticides used do degrade fairly quickly when exposed to UV rays. Still, I wouldn't give my chins anything that has ever been sprayed because who knows what was used?

 

[Bethany2386]

I would only get the small twigs and stuff, so I assume that it would be new growth, but that's why I am asking. I don't want to do anything that would harm my chins.

 

[Riven]

There is no way to really tell what has been sprayed or not. Sprayed trees do tend to have less bugs ( from residual pesticides) and look very healthy. This can of course be attributed to just being really healthy ( usually wind, hail, and sun can take it's toll on trees ) as well.

Anything that is new growth should be okay.

 

[Bethany2386]

Well the fruit was non-edible. It was extremely buggy!