Someone should replace the trees at the Yahoo Misson College lot

Hear! Hear!

I totally agree. I have been worked there for 1 year and my car is very oily. I need to wash the car contantly. And the tree is everywhere. It is hard to find a parking place away from these trees.

This is a major problem. The resin is an extreme problem. It is difficult to remove and takes too much time to remove.

The evidence on the pavement should be enough to have them replaced. Take a look to see the amount of area covered near each tree.

I whole heartly approve of this suggestion!

There may be environmental impacts. You guys should ride bikes to work instead :) Then there will be no resin to clean off :)

Definitely replace the trees with different trees. The current trees aren't compatible with any use that I can think of.

As far as biking, if you have children its difficult to bike in. None of the local school districts have buses and they also don't support neighborhood schooling. So sorry, I gotta drive.

Imagine the environmental impact of everybody having to wash their cars twice as much.

Before we get all "I bike to work" superior here: There is a negative for bicycle riders. The sap gets on your tires (thats tyres for you foreigners). It takes quite a distance for this stickiness to wear off.

Since we are entering a period of drought the replacement tree should be this one:
http://www.outdoorartificialpalms.com/index.html

If you look in the neighborhood nearby they have the same problem. I'm not sure it's a sap problem since some trees are affected more than others. The goo washes off easily so it doesn't seem like tree sap. I saw some gardeners spraying a couple weeks ago in the Yahoo lot. Could that be the fix? Someone should email facilities and find out what they plan to do about it.

Are you sure those trees are inherently like this, not some kind of disease they developed recently? I am thinking of this because some of the trees in my neighborhood (also in South Bay) are having the same resin problem, while they never had it before.

Does anyone remember they were like this in 2005?

I heard that the problem is caused by a blight, so it's not the type of tree that is the problem.

I found a brief and clear description of a similar problem on New Mexico State University's, College of Agriculture and Home Economics' -Southwest Yard & Garden Archives.

http://cahe.nmsu.edu/CES/yard/2005/011505.html

I am not sure whether its the same problem, I don't even know the name of the plant(s) in our parking lot.

I agree. However, we have to find another place for them.

I'd volunteer to help remove them as they've damaged the pain job on my car. Some of the tree's are giving off what seems like gallons of resin each day. I know its a expensive proposition to remove and replace the tree's, but I'm for it. They do however need a home though, if moved.

I'd be willing to put together a little group to help wash cars, maybe for a possible fundraiser? :)

But yeah, the trees are not nice. The ones on the side have not been dropping anything.

I absolutely agree the trees need to be changed. The sap secreted by the trees leaves stain marks on cars that is very difficult to remove. I purposely pick parking spots where sap marks do not exist which is such an inconvenience.

At least carry out a severe pruning of the trees so the sap radius is greatly reduced.

I agree replacing the trees would be ideal.

I agree these trees needs to be removed.

oh yeah! guess it's in everyone's mind, these trees are not car friendly, it's like a parking lot saying "don't park here"... these trees need a new home, and our cars can have their own home back.

i had to get my car buffed and waxed ($250!) to remove the sap. although they removed most of the sap, some of sap stained my black paint.

Yeah.. pretty sure my shoe stuck to the pavement when I was only walking through. It's pretty gross.

These trees suck. They don't even provide shade for any of the cars because they're too small. They have no other purpose except to make a sappy mess and get it all over your car.

If the resin problem is inherent in the species of tree, that's a problem. If it's caused by blight, and the trees can't be maintained so that they remain healthy, that's a problem. Almost always, trees are great, but not so much so in parking lots. Even if they are healthy, and don't drip resin, the birds sit in them and then you get bird poop on your car (mine *always* did in the GA parking lot.) Even this tree-hugger says they should go.

Free car wash Tuesdays would be nice. Ohhhh bagel Tuesdays...I miss you.

Well, if we do get them to cut down the trees just be sure that the news doesn't reach Berkeley. There are a whole bunch of rabid tree huggers there who will be looking for a new cause soon... :-)

This couldn''t happen soon enough!

It would be awesome to see students living in the MC trees!

OH. I thought it was because my car!

Yeah, replace these trees with something else.

Proposed (partial) solutions:

(1) Remove current trees. Collect funds, rent a bunch of chain saws and ask for volunteers to cut down the trees. Then, on a weekend, cut them down and haul them away. Maybe the city of Santa Clara would provide a wood chipper. Alternately, we could obviously hire some company to do this. I'm not sure how much more expensive that would be.

(2) New trees: Collect funds from employees, Yahoo! corporate and the building owner. Then buy trees and have them planted. We would obviously want to carefully research the tree variety to make sure that we don't have this problem again.

I realize that things are more complicated than this. I'm glossing over some issues, but using this suggestion as a "straw man" to initiate brainstorming.

Please clean these trees ASAP. We all spend lot of time and money cleaning up cars. I am sure it would be bad experience for visitors who visit the office as well. Please take an early action.

I would propose to change those parking places to green land. That won't cost much, and since we have enough parking places already ( a little far tho), we don't mind walking a little bit longer .

These trees are gross. It's especially fun when I step in the sap by accident, then end up sticking to all the floors *inside* our buildings too....

I just submitted a facilities request (Service Request 5430571) asking that this problem be fixed. I mentioned treating the trees and replacing the trees as two possibilities.

It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get.

it's such a problem, it's often difficult to even walk across the parking lot without my shoes getting sap on them. i probably have to clean off the bottom of my shoes once a week.

I got a response back from my facilities request. It said that the problem is an aphid infestation and "Landscapers are working to resolve the problem".

If that's true, I would say that these landscapers aren't making much progress.

I checked out the Aphid Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid) and here's a relevant excerpt: "Plants contain low densities of the nitrogen compounds needed for building proteins. This requires aphids to consume an excess of sap to satisfy their nutritional requirements. The excess is expelled as 'honeydew', out of the recta of aphids, in such large volumes that in sometimes it can 'fall like rain'.[3] Aphid honeydew is rich in carbohydrates, like the phloem it derives from."

So it's not tree sap or resin; it's aphid s__t. I'm sure that knowing that makes everyone feel better about getting it all over their cars, on their shoes, etc. ;-)

Paraphrasing Dilbert I'd have only one question for an aphid:

Are you flammable?

I've considered cutting all the trees down on my own in the middle of the night.

I am also agree with it. instead of these tree there should be some other tree needs to be planted.

> I heard back - the facility team is working with JLL
> (landscapers). They will be investigating the concerns and
> address with the landlord.

This is the third year this has happened. Are they saying that haven't done anything to address the issue until now? It seems pretty late to be looking for a solution.

We all understand that trees are valuable resource and we should do our best to preserve them. But at some point it becomes unsafe to drive the car after being parked for few days on Yahoo MC parking lot.

Who cares what the root cause is? Whether it is a blight, disease, insects, or just plain old natural weeping for the species?

The problem is that that the problem has not been addressed and the best way to deal with the problem is remove the trees. I have removed diseased trees before and replaced them with healthy ones.

It is not as though these are heritage trees that have been around for a very long time and are huge, providing shade and generating lots of oxygen. They are relatively young, immature trees that either (A) have a problem or (B) are a problem.

I'd rather they be replaced with trees that will mature nicely and provide shade for the cars that parked under them without weeping all over them.

It is actually very dangerous to drive even with _a little_ of the sticky resin on the window: if there is any sun or streetlight the driver is completely blinded. I had a harrowing experience driving after I spent all my windshield washer fluid on cleaning the window one day. The worst part is that I did not realize how bad it was until I was driving on the freeway and the sun was hitting it just right.
And yes, I have parked as far away from any tree as I could get, and still, as long as there was a breeze, there was sap on my car.

There's a very simple and natural solution to aphids. Ladybugs. The ladybugs would eat the aphids and then, less sap! The problem with 'replacing' the trees, is that the trees aren't the problem, the aphids. Soon as we've replaced the trees, and new trees get the bugs, who spreads easily, there will be sap again. Ladybug friendly plants should be planted in the green areas, and a gross of lady bugs should be bought. Even if a gross of ladybugs are bought every month, its still cheaper than tearing out the trees and replacing them every year.

Adding ladybugs sounds like a great idea. They are cute even.

All this "cutting down the trees" just sounds like ideas that aren't really well thought out. Some other short term solutions might be to provide in the lobby some window cleaner of some sort that removes the sap. That might help out with the dangerousness of driving. Additionally people could get Yahoo Auto car covers to at least cover the car during the day. It's a little extra work every day but it is a short term solution.

I stopped driving to work, but yes this problem needs a solution. I started spending $50 every month on car wash

I noticed the trees produce a berry, a fruit if you will. An arborist should be called out to assess the trees, there may be a way of pruning them that will stop the sap from weeping and the berries. Also the trees may have a disease, they don't look very healthy. As it stands now it is beginning to look like the La Brea Tar Pits in the parking lot. P.S. Why isn't Santa Clara on local??!!

The crying trees suck!!!!

Everybody writes remove the trees... I say, move the college or other buildings away from the trees. Yes these trees are getting older, and as you age, you will need extra care, or be chain-sawed down. Start using your brain and think of a solution having neutral environmental impact.

Eeek... To reiterate Ciemo's earlier comment. These are ornamental plants, not heirloom old growth trees. These trees always drip sap. This year is just worse than others. I doubt that ladybugs would resolve the problem.

The problem with the removal idea is cost. It would probably cost about $500 a tree to remove and another $200 to replant. Given that there are over 100 trees (I estimate), your talking about $100,000 to resolve the problem.

Haha, silly hippies, us east coasters don't know what you're like till we get out here...If only we'd watched the smug episode sooner...

Just hire some illegal immigrant labor to take care of the job. They'll get 'er done for a fraction of the cost and twice as fast!

I agree that these trees were a bad choice for the parking lot. I agree that they should be moved to another location, and replaced with a different type of tree (if one exists) that doesn't shed so much resin. I would think that this would be the responsibility of the building owner, and not the tenants, EMC and Yahoo!.

I say cut them down and put in some palm trees. Just make sure they are the ones without the coconuts.

IMHO I highly doubt the Yahoo! MC trees are infested with aphids. Aphids usually attack the roots and then work their way up the plant. Also aphids usually attack flowering plants, or more specifically plants that produce fruit like an apple tree. If aphids are pooping on all of our cars they would be hanging out up in the trees limbs, which they are not.

how about everyone who is bothered by it stops parking under the trees? It's a simple solution and we won't have to kill trees.

The trees are a nuisance and spoil the cars all the time. I usually end up driving around finding a parking space that is "not" shaded in order to avoid getting my car all messy.

I completely agree i have to come in early just to get a spot that's not as close to the trees to keep my car clean. It is impossible to keep a clean car with these sap trees located everywhere. I'm also afraid to park too far away because i've heard that there has been some theft issue with people breaking into cars.

We should also have security cameras out in the parking lot to help prevent theft issues as well as have security drive around every so often. This would really help improve the safety of our vehicles and give us the comfort of knowing that our things will still be in our cars when we leave from work.

...looks like someone has started to deal with the tree issue: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32234259@N00/2847081222/

This trained me not to wash my car every week.. :-) Less work for me I guess... :-)

I had to spend 10 bucks to wash my new black car the day i bought it :-(

Michael O - any updates on this from the facilities team?

IT IS NOT THE DANG TREE!!!!

Talk to the landscaper's, its their problem to fix cause you got Aphid's!

This is a problem at the apartment complex I live in as well.
One day I saw our landscapers on the complex and asked them about all the excess sap. He said MANY people think its the tree sapping, when in fact its the Aphid's feeding on the plant.

"Plants contain low densities of the nitrogen compounds needed for building proteins. This requires aphids to consume an excess of sap to satisfy their nutritional requirements. The excess is expelled as "honeydew", out of the recta of aphids, in such large volumes that in sometimes it can "fall like rain"."