 
Izzyindetroit
Member
Username: Izzyindetroit
Post Number: 194
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 7:49 pm: |    |
Is there a purpose or reason why people paint them white up to 4 to 6 feet? I'm curious. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 2968
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 7:58 pm: | |
The people we bought our first house from said they did it to make it look nice with the lawn furniture. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 3884
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 7:59 pm: | |
Both of my grandpas used to do that and told me it was to keep ants from invading the trees. Our neighbor does it and said the same thing. He has healthy looking trees!  |
Thecarl
Member
Username: Thecarl
Post Number: 936
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 8:11 pm: | |
people start painting them, then get lazy, or don't have a ladder, and their neighbor won't loan them one - so only the first four to six feet end up getting painted. |
Bobl
Member
Username: Bobl
Post Number: 644
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 9:26 pm: | |
I was told that trees were painted white for visibility so that people would not walk into them after dark.
That was years ago, when the streets were lit and the streetlights would be reflected on the white area of the tree. |
Gary
Member
Username: Gary
Post Number: 288
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 9:30 pm: | |
Until now, I always thought it was done for asthetics. Guess you really do learn something new every day |
401don
Member
Username: 401don
Post Number: 951
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 9:37 pm: | |
Another hall of fame thread in the making. Gotta say I've never heard of this. Is this a Detroit city, metro or wider spread activity? |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 1685
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 9:39 pm: | |
I believe the white "paint" is an insecticide. The old guy down our street used to paint his tree trunks and that was his reasoning. Mind you, a few years later they took him away for planning to blow up the neighborhood, yet until that time he was really knowledgeable about gardening. |
6nois
Member
Username: 6nois
Post Number: 825
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 9:44 pm: | |
I've seen it all over and often wondered the same thing. Bay City, Saginaw, Flint, Detroit, mostly on older peoples houses (that in this context means 70+). My great grandpa told me about it repelling ants but I wasn't so sure, he was always telling me strange things though. |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 1687
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 9:54 pm: | |
6, did use Windex on all types of skin conditions? ;-)
Seriously, I think tree painting is an old-timer's remedy. Our neighborhood tree painting guy was a WWI vet. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 3885
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 10:16 pm: | |
Yep, grandpas were WWI vets. Neighbor a WWII vet. Grandpas lived in VA, WV and PA at one time. Neighbor in Metro Detroit, Ontario and California. So I don't think it's a regional thing.
The areas my grandpas were from in VA, WV and PA - all the men painted the tree trunks. In fact, the one grandpa called it white wash, not paint. I think it was mixed by combining lye and something else? I'm not real sure about it, but remember him saying that.
And they always had healthy looking trees, so they may have been onto something? |
Johnnny5
Member
Username: Johnnny5
Post Number: 728
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 10:26 pm: | |
The paint deters insects from crawling from the ground. It also stops the sun from heating the bark in the winter which can cause a harmful freeze/thaw cycle. |
Gnome
Member
Username: Gnome
Post Number: 2505
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 - 5:35 am: | |
The guys that do the painting are usually Navy Men, sometimes Marines, usually Navy. The anal-retentive branch of the Armed Forces. |
Lilpup
Member
Username: Lilpup
Post Number: 5397
Registered: 06-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 - 6:08 am: | |
It was also commonly done during WWII to help cope with the mandatory blackouts. |
Beech_cricker
Member
Username: Beech_cricker
Post Number: 79
Registered: 10-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 - 7:15 am: | |
This is NOT just a Detroit area or Michigan thing as I've seen such painted trees in Pennsylvania as well. |
Birdie
Member
Username: Birdie
Post Number: 139
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, March 22, 2009 - 9:19 pm: | |
i thought it was to protect trees from dutch elm disease. |
Penelopetheduck
Member
Username: Penelopetheduck
Post Number: 44
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, March 22, 2009 - 10:25 pm: | |
I always heard it was to protect against gypsy moths. When I was a young kid my family lived in connecticut during a horrifying gypsy moth infestation. I have a revulsion towards caterpillars to this day. |
Mkhopper
Member
Username: Mkhopper
Post Number: 18
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 23, 2009 - 1:08 pm: | |
Oddly, I had heard that the white paint kept squirrels from climbing the tree. Always thought that was ridiculous, and I never understood why anyone would care, but that's the story I got.
Way back when however, my grandfather used to wrap 2 foot wide sections of sheet metal around the trees near the house about 15' up to keep the raccoons from gaining access to the roof and chewing their way into the attic. Never seemed to stop them though as I recall... |