Ball Moss Clean Up

Ball Moss Flowers and Seeds

When we remove ball moss from your tree, we are removing the mature flowers.  Ball moss produces hairy seeds that wedge themselves into the tree’s rough bark. Rain will push the seeds even farther into the bark, helping the ball moss grow back and spread. 

To prevent regrowth, you can clean up your tree after ball moss removal: knock the seeds off your tree using a hose with a strong spray jet.  

How to Remove Ball Moss Seeds

Spray upward on the trunk to clean your trees and help knock the seeds off the bark. 

Do not spray your tree during a sunny day. Trees are accustomed to rain coming on cloudy days. The best time to clean ball moss seeds off your tree is late at night or before dawn. You want to give the leaves time to dry off before the heat of the day. Wet leaves can burn on a sunny day, because the water drops act like little magnifying glasses. The water drops can burn holes in your leaves.

What is Ball Moss?

Ball moss is not actually a moss. It’s an epiphyte – a flowering plant – like an air plant without roots. Trees gather water through their roots, and distribute it up the trunk to its limbs. When a tree is full of water, it mists the water out (transpiration), which helps cool us off in the Central Texas summer. Ball moss hurts your tree by blocking its ability to transpirate. It also interferes with the tree’s ability to distribute water to its limbs.

Is Ball Moss Dangerous?

While the ball moss does not immediately kill the trees, it stresses the ability of its branches to get sunlight to photosynthesize.

Ball moss is also a heavy plant – the extra weight can stress the tree.

Ball Moss Removal Alternative

Some people recommend a baking soda and copper solution, used as a spray to minimize and dry out the ball moss. The baking soda does dry out the ball moss, and makes the tree an unstable breeding environment.  But every time it rains the solution washes away, and needs to be re-applied. We found that this is not a cost-effective solution, long-term.

Ball Moss Removal in Central Texas

If you are concerned about ball moss damaging one of your trees, call A Good Morning Tree Service. We offer full service tree care throughout Austin and Central Texas, including ball moss removal.