AusBonsai

Hi all,


In need of someone more knowledgeable about pests than i am.

I have had a little red balls appearing on the soil surface of this plum for a while. After a quick google i thought they looked look cockroach poo, and i've seen the odd cockroach here and there on my benches so i put it from my mind.

Today i was noodling around the back garden and noticed the few here and there had become a more substantial pile and this made no sense to me in my previously assumed cause. I poked around the edge of the deadwood and found that the bark was flaking back so i got stuck in and found 5 of these guys hiding underneath. They certainly don't appear to be termites, and if they were this has been going on long enough i'd have no tree left by now.

They just seemed to like the safety of hiding under the bark whatever they are.

I've peeled all the old bark back to the live wood now, so there's nowhere to hide. In the photo below it is the dark red channel next to the white lime sulphured deadwood that they were in. I'll apply lime sulphur this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon to the area.

I've completely bare rooted the tree and put in fresh soil, and rinsed every single nook so But they don't appear to have done any actual damage to the plant.

Rule number one - you MUST look after plums!
Seriously now, I'm no expert but the brown stuff looks like poo and the critter looks like a wood eater. In my experience where there is one there will probably be more so good housekeeping on your part.

Watto wrote: ↑August 9th, 2021, 6:58 am Rule number one - you MUST look after plums!
Seriously now, I'm no expert but the brown stuff looks like poo and the critter looks like a wood eater. In my experience where there is one there will probably be more so good housekeeping on your part.

Thanks Watto, I’m usually hyper alert but this tree has been on my naughty list for not flowering so I’ve been a bit neglectful. I’ll keep an eye on the soil surface going forward for any signs I’ve missed any

Borers are generally moth or beetle larvae. Given your photographs and the presence of that brown frass (the scientific word for poo), I'd hazzard that they are feeding on the inner layers of the bark. What species it actually is, well that is harder. This one has been found in Victoria and has the right host range http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.a ... tigma.html

Well after work i had a nose around the tree again and found another one low on the trunk making a nice little cave for itself, so i decided it was time for drastic action.

I got drastic, and chased down every borer hole with a packet of matches and some tweezers and branch splitters. I think i found anther 5 or so, and it has cost me all the beautiful dead wood on the tree doing it. I'm honestly not sure it's even worth persevering with the tree any further now. It is so skinny after removing wood to chase out these b*****d things.

I used the matches to heat up/ smoke the areas i was working yesterday. This one didn't appreciate being smoked very much. Fatal error it made emerging.
This prick almost got away until i noticed it's bum in the hole beneath it in the photo Evern if it were to surive this, there isn't much worth saving here So so skinny now