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  • From: Hélène Dessureault <interverbis@videotron.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Trouble in paradise? (apple tree)
  • Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:38:00 -0500

While it is true that some borers bore very devious paths, I used the poking wire with good success at my place. I had the borers problem for quite some years before I understood the nature of the problem, which had reach epidemic proportion before I started doing something about it (I found more than one specimen in a single small apple tree of 2 inches in diameter and another completely severed at ground level. The tree actually stayed in my hand).
 
When you poke the hole with a wire, you can tell when the poking has worked because the production of frass near the boring hole stops. If there is new frass the day following the execution !?!, you can try again. I have never had to poke into the hole more than twice (two days in a row) to achieve success. I have to admit though that I have also injected an organic insecticide with a seringe on Day 2, sometimes, to make sure. That seems to work also. In the last few years, I was able to observe that the population of borers was greatly diminished so that I usually find a few isolated cases here and there during the season, but not anything too troublesome.
 
Hélène
Zone 3-4, north of Ottawa
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Trouble in paradise? (apple tree)

This could be old borer damage.  I do have extensive experience with borers (to my great regret).  Generally the borers killed my whole tree, but an occasional tree which had only one borer would recover, and the old tunnel eventually broke down, leaving a gap in the bark rather like your picture.  My suggestion - when the weather warms up - is to go out with a sharp knife and cut the bark away above the cleft in the bark and see whether there is a tunnel extending up the trunk (maybe even with a fat grub at the end) Active borer infestation is actually pretty easy to detect - there is a yellow-brown frass coming out of the hole(s) which is pretty obvious once one looks for it.  If there is nothing above, you may need to go down - borers may go several inches below ground level.  If it is borers be aware that the lifecycle may be up to 3 years, if you have them in one tree they are likely to be in neighbouring trees (the moths are pretty lazy and don't travel far before laying their eggs, so they generally infect neighbouring trees rather than skipping to the other side of the orchard), and that the commonly suggested control measure of poking a wire into the hole doesn't work because the holes are frequently crooked and the wire gets caught up in a bend.

On 17 Mar 2008 at 0:48, Steve wrote:

>
> I've never had borers so I didn't really check. I didn't notice any holes but I wouldn't know what to
> look for anyway.
> I was thinking that some nice spring day I may flop down beside the tree and clean away any
> dead bark that I find. Maybe cut a clean line around the edges to help healing, if that's possible. I
> suppose borer damage would then be right there looking me in the face.
> I'll wait to see what other advice gets offered. Right now there is about 2 feet of snow in the yard
> and it's going to 8 below zero tomorrow night. No flopping on the ground for a while.
>
> Steve


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