Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer beetle

Sinbad

Sinbad

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This little ****er.
Suddenly a HUGE problem in Joburg, especially the northern suburbs.

It's an imported pest from the far east that is going to decimate the tree population in Joburg.
We need to spread awareness to try and contain the damage... we've found 3 trees on the road outside our house that are infested - they had a go at some of the trees in our garden but fortunately they were not hospitable (the beetle and its fungus can only thrive in certain species)... We have a massive pin oak and a massive syringa - probably 50-100 years old, and these guys ARE susceptible.
Scary stuff, normally once a tree is infested there's no way to save it.

https://polyphagous-shot-hole-borer.co.za/

Check your trees people... report infestations and seek professional advice!
 
(not my tree).
The ones affected outside are chinese maple. We're going to have them injected in the hopes of saving them, but I don't think there's much chance.
Reality is they need to be cut down and solarised - but they're city parks trees so we can't do that.
 
maumau said:
How did you find out the Chinese maple were affected?
Click to expand...
We had an arborist come around because we spotted some holes in one tree. He diagnosed the maples and once he pointed out the symptoms it's pretty obvious
 
Sinbad said:
We had an arborist come around because we spotted some holes in one tree. He diagnosed the maples and once he pointed out the symptoms it's pretty obvious
Click to expand...

Tks, will keep a lookout.
 
I think it has been. Not sure though, I don't watch it
 
There were some articles about this a few months back already on news24 and some other sites.

Really sucks. Joburg is beautiful because of all the trees IMO. If we lose a large portion of our older trees it will be terrible.
 
Yup. Had the same problem. Only affects certain trees. I read the only solution is to remove the tree and burn the wood. A local guy created an app where you report affected trees in your area and the city council will sort out the problem. Will see if I can find a link to that article.
 
There is a bird (read an article somewhere) which the were talking about introducing - this is the natural enemy of the beetle. Really sad when I look at the damage this little shyte has been causing in Centurion
 
The issue with introducing a new wasp or something is sometimes the solution is worse. Australia introduced cane toads to try control a foreign pest and now the cane toad is a bigger issue than the bug they brought the cane toads in to eat.
 
A tiny beetle is killing SA’s trees, and it is doing so at speed

A black beetle the size of a sesame seed is killing SA’s trees, and no one knows how to stop it.

After arriving from Southeast Asia about four years ago, the polyphagous shot-hole borer has spread 1,600km across SA, from Pietermaritzburg, where it was discovered in 2017, to indigenous forests near Cape Town.

An unwelcome side effect of globalisation, the pest is believed to have arrived along with wood pellets on a ship.

The polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB) first drew scientific attention in 2008 after infesting avocado orchards in Israel and was then found burrowing into millions of trees in urban southern California.

Now, SA is probably facing the largest invasion by surface area to date. The pest is likely to drastically reduce the green canopy of Johannesburg, one of the largest man-made forests in the world, with some tree experts saying that as much as 30% of all trees could die.

It could also hurt the country’s avocado, macadamia, wine, stone-fruit and pecan-nut industries, which account for a large slice of SA’s $11bn of agricultural exports.

At risk too are the iconic oak trees of Stellenbosch.

More @ Business Day Live
https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/n...illing-sas-trees-and-it-is-doing-so-at-speed/
 
After years of reports and complaining, city parks finally arrived a couple of weeks back and cut down all the dead trees on my block, been dead for years, rotting and falling down... around 2 in 3 dead... there is no hope in getting ahead of it when reaction time is years behind
 
Temujin said:
After years of reports and complaining, city parks finally arrived a couple of weeks back and cut down all the dead trees on my block, been dead for years, rotting and falling down... around 2 in 3 dead... there is no hope in getting ahead of it when reaction time is years behind
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there is no incentive to get ahead of it.... Parks department don't generally even begin to understand the gravity of the situation... or if some of them do, the guys on the ground doing the work definitely don't
 
Pretoria at work. Think this is it?
Cut some bark off the first image to look for holes...
2ffb260bbdc068c57ecde035c853c4c7.jpg
612e4bef9eb7565e51a0b1f1ef551c58.jpg
79b863b39c62b97473dccc5c168a01bf.jpg
 
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