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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] the apple/dogwood borer and how to fight them

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  • From: david.maxwell@dal.ca
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] the apple/dogwood borer and how to fight them
  • Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:07:17 -0300

I have been fighting Rounded-Headed Apple Borer (Saperda candida) for years
(in Nova
Scotia, Canada). The commercial growers didn't know what it was, and the
extension folk
knew very little about it, (because their regular cover sprays killed it
off). Like you, I have
tried wires, drills, knives and curses. None of these work.
My current approach (started last summer, so can't verify effectiveness), is
1) paint the trunks
with a mix of lime and latex paint. Supposedly this creates a barrier to
oviposition. I am not
at all sure it does, BUT what it does do is make any active infestation
immediately apparent,
because the frass from the holes shows up on the light surface. 2) Here is
the sneaky bit:
having found a hole, inject a strong insecticide solution into the hole with
a syringe and 21
gauge needle. The beasts usually have several opening to the surface, and I
keep injecting
solution until it comes out the other holes. I figure that way I have filled
the chambers
completely with neat insecticidal solution. Even if the insecticide (and I
suspect it doesn't
much matter which one one uses) doesn't kill them, maybe the buggers will
drown!

My suspicion is that painting Lorsban on the trunks (or spraying it - or
indeed any other
insecticide - is going to be a lost cause. The beasties are safely under the
bark; your
Lorsaban isn't going to get them. (It may kill the females trying to lay new
eggs, but it won't
stop the ones already there from girdling your trees.) The grubs live under
the bark for up to
3 years before emerging, so if you have them in the trees, you are going to
have to either
expose them or attack them in their burrows directly.




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