AusBonsai

Just out watering my trees when I noticed something like sawdust at the base of a quince. I scraped the sawdust away and this is what I found:

Ring-barked all the way around!
And this hole. Notice the loss of outer bark above the hole and the change of colour of the trunk. The hole goes in more than half the width of the trunk.

I couldn't find any 'bug' but sprayed with Confidor. Not at all confident this tree will survive.

Anyone know what insect would cause this damage?

ron
i am afraid to say this but i cant help on this because the only pest and bugs that kill my trees are me
dean

If wire in the hole didn't "spear" the bug, then I'd spray, too. Better to be sure; you don't want this pest to go to town on other trees.

If the roots are healthy, and you boost it (at the rate for stressed trees) with Seasol or similar, the plant may well shoot from below the ring bark area. If the plant's branch structure is important to you, you could try bridge grafting to support the tree while it heals over the wound.

Take a skim of bark, including a sliver of wood (cambium layer), from one of the branches that you plan to prune anyway. Gently lift a flap of bark from above and below the wound and insert the "bridge". You will probably need a couple of bridges at least, depending on the size of the tree. I'd cover the area of the wound with damp sphagnum moss (and plastic if not in a shaded spot) to keep the wound from drying out while the plant attempts to heal over the wound; budding/grafting tape might do the trick, too. Trees will try to heal over the wound when you ring bark layer them so you stand a good chance ot saving the top.

This worked for me on a young apple tree that ended up the same way when a wallaby took a fancy (and a set of fangs) to it.

Best of luck, Ron.

Jan

Had the same problem on a Japanese Maple branch a while back. FInally speared him but it was too late, lost the branch. Still dont know what type of pest it was but would love to know so if anyone out there can identify it, that would be great.

Never seen a wood borer do this sought of damage but I doubt there is much room in there to hide. I would add some spag moss around the base to the damaged area and keep trying to stick it with wire. I think there is a good chance it will recover and heal back over.

Thanks, folks. I'll get some moss first thing tomorrow and then keep my fingers crossed.

Cheers, Ron.

Ron, maybe a witjuty bug, I had several in one of my jade tree, they did not ring bark though.
If the ring bark is not deep enough you should be right, a few drops of metho at the entrance to suffocate the intruder.
A trunk chop maybe in order though with the bug doing your carving for you.
Mick

This is quite typical of wood borer. The culprit is the larva (grub) of one of the beetles, possibly a longicorn beetle. The hole often bends so spearing with wire is not always possible. As handymick suggests, to kill the grub squirt a little metho (or we used petrol in one nursery) into the hole with a syringe which should kill it or flush it out into the open. Check for the telltale sawdust (called 'frass') on other trees in case more were laid. They can occur on trunk or branches.
I agree with Bretts the damage does not appear too great - it may not actually have gone through the cambium. Covering the wound with spagnum or wound sealer should allow the tree to bridge the gap pretty quick. Feed and water well to get it to grow a bit. I doubt that bridge grafting as suggested by Jan will be necessary in this case.

shibui wrote:.... Covering the wound with spagnum or wound sealer should allow the tree to bridge the gap pretty quick. ...

Thanks, Shibui. I couldn't get any spagnum moss locally today so did I used Japanese cut sealant.

Oh gosh Ron! I cannot believe that there's a a bug that can actually travel all the way around a tree's trunk seemingly ringbarking it. It's like it's trying to exact revenge on you, and it did research to find out how to quickly kill a tree. Bugger! I've only had one 'ooh whats this pile of sawdust?' encounter on the soil of one of my trees, and the borer I found ended up killing my sagaretia. And another close call was the huge munching teeth or a possum or rat half-ringbarking a little shohin elm of mine down at trunk base. That's when the bonsai owner emotions really come to the surface, ha!

But it sounds like the group here gave you some good advice. And i'm glad that it looks like it wasn't fully barked.

I also hear that borers really don't like justin beiber music, so feel free to play some of his music loudly towards the hole, hopefully he'll move on.
Jozaeh

jozaeh wrote:...I also hear that borers really don't like justin beiber music...
Jozaeh

Hi Jozaeh,



There is one piece of Justin Beiber's music that I do like and will admit to on a public forum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspuCt1FM9M

Ron ...

There is one piece of Justin Beiber's music that I do like and will admit to on a public forum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspuCt1FM9M
Ron ...[/quote]

ha ha! I nearly didn't say my line about justin beiber's music just in case I accidentally offended someone who liked him, and then you send me a link and I freak out thinking you're an actual fan. NO! And then i see it's the 800% slower version, ooh you gained some respect. I listened to that a little while back and really liked it hey, it's crazy how nice it sounds.

That slowed version gave us all the chance to actually get a little beiber fever ourselves to join the ranks of the 12 year old girl fans of his.

Jozaeh