What did someone sprinkle on my tree?

December 9, 2019 7:04 PM

I just moved into a new home and realized one of the trees has been sprinkled with a white powder. My initial thought was fungus but it looks deliberately sprinkled on the trunk base, plants, and even the fence nearby. It does not appear anywhere else in the yard. Could it be crematorium ashes of the previous owner? Any way to test if it's human cremains? [Detail pic]
posted by Jason and Laszlo to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Diatomaceous earth (used for pest control) would be my guess.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:06 PM on December 9, 2019 [10 favorites]

Looks to me to be way way too fine and nowhere near dark enough a powder to be crematorium ashes. Much more likely to be either DE or lime, possibly applied in a half-assed attempt to control whatever is making those boreholes in the bark.
posted by flabdablet at 7:18 PM on December 9, 2019 [5 favorites]

Looks to me to be way way too fine and nowhere near dark enough a powder to be crematorium ashes.

I've, uh, handled human cremains (in the context of preparations for a scattering ceremony, not for purposes nefarious) and I agree.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:25 PM on December 9, 2019

That is no fungus and not human cremains, I have too much experience with both and neither looks anything like that. I agree with flabdablet, looks like lime or DE.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:31 PM on December 9, 2019

If it's lime, a sample of it will fizz a bit if you drop it in vinegar. If it's DE, it won't.
posted by flabdablet at 7:44 PM on December 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

Along with lime or DE it could also be Boric Acid powder, used to control roaches and other insects.
posted by mmoncur at 9:59 PM on December 9, 2019

Everything above but also elemental sulfur fungicide powder. It’s what I dust on seed potatoes and such to combat mildew. If the tree had a fungal infestation it would have been a smart move.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:03 PM on December 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Whitewashing the base of a tree with lime is very common, and is done to protect it from the sun.
posted by w0mbat at 9:11 AM on December 10, 2019

Nthing that it's probably gardening lime or sulfur, both of which are commonly used for pine trees for various reasons, or maybe a pyrethroid insecticide to control whichever sort of beetle has been drilling that trunk.
posted by desuetude at 10:40 AM on December 10, 2019