Ambrosia beetle / borers

[chickenlittle]

I lost my first tree to these. A 2015 bench graft of NY35 Bonkers. Had a couple apples last year. Leafed out poorly this spring. The sign of these beetles are short sawdust frass sticking out from the tree. With the rain, it wasn't quite like that but saw dust around the many holes. Cut it down and will burn it. The inside at one spot looked like this below. I guess most of the damage is done by fungus they bring in.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Looks like most of the damage was done by girding (eating) from the inside by the pupa. Then it metamorphed into the adult and left its "skin" behind.
Small/young trees are fragile.

 

[WTNUT]

Thanks for the information and keep those things in your state :)


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[bigbendmarine]

Feel your pain. Past two years I've had to cut a fig tree and contorted mulberry slap to the ground after spotting the toothpicks. Thankfully both had new growth emerge from the trunk but I lost a few years worth of growth, especially with the mulberry, after having planted / raised both from wee saplings. Hate, hate, hate them little bastages.

 

[Apple Junkie]

Thanks for the useful info. CL. I would not have know what to look for, but I'll be on the lookout now. Hopefully, I'll get lucky and never spot these little sh**s. Just the one tree?

 

[chickenlittle]

Just one tree but i didn't have time to look everything over. I looked at some that had not leafed out yet and saw no sign. I have about 100 trees in that orchard, all planted since 2015.

 

[chickenlittle]

I found another tree with a similar borer sign and think it is a goner. It was a grafted Dolgo tree that I was unhappy with last year, not the healthiest and ripened earlier than I desired. I cut it off about 2ft high in May and bark grafted it. On my last visit to the orchard, there was a borer hole few inches below the graft. The grafts had started to leaf out but look doomed. So one more spot opened up for a new tree.

 

[Prof.Kent]

I have read that borers hit the tree within about 2 feet above ground level. Is that what you found?

 

[chickenlittle]

Probably typical but the previous tree i lost had multiple ambrosia borer holes up to 3 or 4 ft. The other borer that attacked my Redfree was at 4 or 5ft high.