Monitoring tree health and protecting our trees, woods and forests from pests and diseases is an increasingly important part of sustainable tree and forest management. This means you need to be able to identify specific pests and diseases to tackle any obvious problems. Once you know what’s affecting your trees, you can find advice on what action to take.
Specific tree pests and diseases
If you know the name of the tree pest or disease affecting your trees, see the Forestry Commission guidance giving detailed information on specific tree pests or diseases known to be present in the UK. You can also find out about those that pose a potential risk to the UK but are not present yet.
Identify by tree species
If you’re unsure what’s causing the problem, use the alphabetical table below to narrow down the options for the relevant tree species and find out which pests and diseases can affect it.
Sweet chestnut blight, Oriental chestnut gall wasp, Phytophthora ramorum
Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus)
Asian longhorn beetle
W
Tree species
pest or disease names
Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
Sirococcus blight
Western red cedar (Thuja plicata)
Sirococcus blight
Willow (Salix species)
Asian longhorn beetle, citrus longhorn beetle
Y
Tree species
pest or disease name
Yew (Taxus baccata)
Phytophthora lateralis
Note: this list of trees is not exhaustive.
Request a diagnosis
The information in the table above is not exhaustive. You may discover a different pest or disease attacking your trees and you should report it or request a diagnosis from Forest Research’s Tree Health Diagnostic and Advisory Service. There might be a fee for this service.