Not sure, hard to say from a verbal description, but honey fungus doesn't cause fluffy stuff, it causes a creamy white mycelium sheet under the bark which smells strongly of mushrooms, and around September, if it is honey fungus, the toadstools should appear. This sounds more like damage to the trunk which has then allowed infection to enter - possibly the tree is weeping and the insects happen to like the liquid. Strimmer damage is the most common problem at the base of trees causing the original wound.

hi bamboo,
i thought it sounded more like wooly aphid myself, but i wont know until i visit her on monday, but many thanks for confirming what i also thought, it doesn.t sound like the fungus..