Nails in trees

[Farmer_Gyles]

i want to put things like a bee house in the garden, was thinking about nailing them to an old apple tree, but vaguely recall hearing something about using nails to kill trees or only using certain types of nails ?? nailing a bee house to a 1ft thick apple tree trunk won't kill the tree will it??

[Flummery]

Would it be copper nails? Copper's fairly toxic. I think the odd galvanised nail isn't going to hurt. (Unless you nail it through your finger!)

[JimmerG]

FG,

I think it's big rusty nails through small trees that's the problem, I reckon you'll be fine.

J

[TonyF]

The old way of killing off trees of any sort, apart from the axe, was to put a ring of copper nails round the trunk, hammered in and left there. The trees died - I know of a couple of old farmers down this way who swear by that method.

[Jenegade]

If we're putting bat boxes up at work, we always use aluminum nails. They are meant to cause less damage to the tree.

[crichmond]

you could always drill a small-ish hole in the tree and use a wooden peg as a nail then there would be no chance of poisoning the tree.

[esrikandan]

Stainless steel nails will probably be ok?

[Farmer_Gyles]

cheers guys .... glad i wasnt imagining all that!

[Welsh Wizard]

Make sure you remove the nail when you are done with the bee box, there is nothing worse than hitting an un expected nail while chainsawing down trees: its lethal.

[Jenegade]

Make sure you remove the nail when you are done with the bee box, there is nothing worse than hitting an un expected nail while chainsawing down trees: its lethal.

Yup, I second that! My boyfriend's a forester and is always complaining about nails left in trees! You could secure it with some sort of band/ wire around the trunk.

[Snadger]

The old way of killing off trees of any sort, apart from the axe, was to put a ring of copper nails round the trunk, hammered in and left there. The trees died - I know of a couple of old farmers down this way who swear by that method.

I know of one guy at the lottie who plans a moonlight copper nail raid on a tree that is shading his allotment!