If you own live oaks or red oaks in Central Texas — and if you own a yard here, you probably do — the timing of your trim matters as much as the quality of it. The reason is oak wilt, a fungal disease that has killed oaks across large parts of Texas, and it deserves to be taken seriously.
The short version
Avoid trimming oaks from roughly February through June. That's when the sap-feeding beetles that spread the oak wilt fungus are most active, and when fresh pruning cuts are most attractive to them. A cut made in April is an open door.
The safer windows are the extremes: the coldest part of winter and the hottest part of summer, when beetle activity drops off.
The rules that apply year-round
- Seal every cut on an oak, immediately. Oaks are the one species where pruning paint is standard practice — the sealed cut stops beetle access. "Immediately" means as each cut is made, not at the end of the day.
- Clean tools between trees. The fungus can travel on saw blades.
- Don't move fresh oak firewood. Infected wood spreads the disease to new neighborhoods.
What this means when you hire
Ask whoever trims your oaks two questions: "When do you trim oaks, and do you seal the cuts?" A crew that shrugs at either question shouldn't be in your trees. We schedule oak work for the safe windows and seal as we cut — and if your job lands in the risky season and can wait, we'll tell you to wait.
More: the tree trimming service page, trim vs. remove, what drives trimming cost, and our FAQ.