Peach-tree Borers!

I dearly hope you got 'em all with extraction. Death to borers. :rage:

Matt here is some good neem:

http://www.amazon.com/Neem-100-pure-cold-pressed/dp/B00HVO6YGW

Just paint this on the bases of all trees, the lower 4-6". Some will also drip into the ground around which is good.

I put up several borer traps and caught zero. I am getting more and more positive on the neem painting method by the month. You need to paint it on at 100% rate, don’t dilute it.

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Thanks for posting Scott. As I move into growing stone fruit I think this will be very important. Bill

You can also spray with Merit. It will kill borers that are inside
the tree.

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Scott, I think I will wait for you Oct report.

Scott,
I did the neem experiment.
I painted 2ft up to where the tree branches into scaffold limbs.

I believe this method works.

Photo 1 tree at ground level with oily brown sheen from the neem oil. No borers. :smile:

Photo 2 is the same tree about 3ft up on a scaffold limb. Right after the neem oil stops. :grimacing:
and there are about 10 more holes like this. :rage:

So maybe the neem forced them to lay eggs higher up the tree?
Maybe in my Bug Infested Humid Hell Hole I need to go 2ft up the scafolds also.(that could get expensive)

Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this subject.

David, that sap is clear so its not borers. I always find sawdust in sap from borers.

I don’t think you need to paint 2’ up, the borers lay their eggs right at the bottoms.

Glad to see no borers at the bottom. Lets keep this thread updated to see how it is working.

By the way I also put the raw neem to use on my blockades for ants on my cherry trees. I mixed about 1/3 raw neem and 2/3 tanglefoot, the result is a mix that is easy to paint on. I painted that on my cherries and it has been successfully blocking the ants all summer.

Scott

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Thanks Scott, I’ve got some with sawdust i’ll take some more pics.
Maybe these high up attacks are Ambrosia beetles?
I thought they only attacked in early spring.
So many pests so little time…

I also experimented with cold pressed neem on my Blackberry canes.
Anthracnose is a problem here in my Alabama swamp It can circle the canes at the base and kill them.
Winter sulfur sprays help but the problem starts now in the humid summer.
Results seem promising so far.

Hope this works. I have the same issue. Did you apply as a preventative or after signs of damage/swollen canes? Bill

I didn’t have borers in my two peach trees, but I ordered a Mirabelle (European) plum and it arrived with a borer hole in it. I didn’t recognize it, and planted the tree, but posted a pic online–maybe on the old GW site. People confirmed it was probably a borer hole. A forum member suggested that the very reputable nursery I bought it from probably treated the tree before they sent it out, so I tried not to worry. I should have stabbed around in the borer hole with a paper clip right away, though. I checked the hole in a week or so and there was frass around it (no sap) and the hole was a lot bigger. I was pretty horrified. I dug around in the hole with the paper clip but it was very deep and I couldn’t be sure I’d gotten the culprit. In a complete frenzy I squeezed superglue into the hole, thinking (but not very clearly!) that it would immobilize the borer larva. I think I got it, unless it had already left the hole–and of course it’s possible there were other borers below the dirt, but I hadn’t noticed anything untoward on the roots. But, of course, the superglue (uh, not organic) soaked into the trunk and kind of froze a section (about 10%) of the trunk and bark. The tree grew vigorously nonetheless, but that little segment at the base of the tree that was permeated with superglue stayed the same size. So I definitely damaged the tree. I’m watching my other trees for any signs of borers. My local CRFG assures me that there were already borers in this area so at least I don’t have to feel like a “typhoid Mary.” The nursery did make good on their boo-boo, though. The tree was grown by someone they contracted with. I don’t know what the moral of the story is, other than, perhaps if you get in a frenzy, reach for the regular glue, NOT the superglue. Sigh.

Scott I’m confused.


http://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2008/mar/peach/

So the orange strip one is Synanthedon exitiosa and that attacks at ground level.

Synanthedon pictipes. attacks higher up as photo above.


Synanthedon pictipes

Yeah! I have both species… :sob:

Just ordered this Scott. If I’m going to use neem I need to upgrade to a better type than the dilute ones.

Pretty, nasty little things. I haven’t seen any, or had any base or upper branch holes yet, but I confess an absolute terror of the buggers.

You are right, David. The orange-striped one seems to be by far the most common and I don’t have the other one (lesser peachtree borer) so I often forget about it. It sounds like you might have the lesser one.

Let us know how the neem works. I have only been doing it for a year so its still in the experimental category. I did my first application in late fall/early winter and only re-applied on the two trees that I saw sawdust on this spring (I also skewered borers in them, I didn’t want to trust only the neem). I am probably going to do another application in August, to try to get the young ones.

We will all have to compare notes over the next few seasons. I may keep one tree Triazicide free as a control, and just use neem on it. I’m not nearly brave enough (or have enough trees) to let one go naked. My tree calipers are still small, so I know not to just relax and say they aren’t here.

As you know your borer population, your data will be near-invaluable in assessing this strategy.

Its effective longevity would be a good thing to establish too, over a few seasons.

Greater and lesser peach tree boreres…one is the devil and lays eggs down by the roots, the other lays eggs up higher…around here it seems to be the one that lays eggs by the roots… I just sprayed all my trees (at the base) with a heavy dose of pyrethrin… so we’ll see…

I’ve seen this bug in my veggie garden, 2 years ago. The next summer I lost an apricot tree. There was a hole in the bottom close to the ground and oozing goup dripping out. I wonder if they also infect apricots.
I’m referring to the picture that David posted.

Synanthedon pictipes

http://www.virginiafruit.ento.vt.edu/lptb.html
“Hosts: Peach and nectarine are the preferred hosts, but all stone fruits may be attacked.”

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Apricot wood is much less soft than peach so while they can infect apricots I don’t find the long tunnels like in peaches. The same goes for plums. Some apricots are on peach rootstock and those could be highly susceptible.

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