I’m in Italy and have a bad problem with peach borers but my insects must be different than in the U.S. because I have never seen the insect identified in the U.S. as the peach tree borer on google
The peach trees currently have no fruit either because it was already harvested or too young to bear.
Also, I have several apple trees with fruit but I only find the moths on the peach trees
Can you get a more magnified photo of it? If certainly doesn’t look like a moth form what I see- most insects hanging out on trees are not pests and are as likely to be friend as foe. If you don’t see any obvious damage of the tree and it is still growing well, I wouldn’t worry about it.
If you had an OFM problem, there would be sagging shoots at branch tips- at least, earlier in the season. Later, they go after fruit sometimes.
Then you do likely have OFM, but I need a magnified picture to clearly see the insect you photographed. There is a very cheap magnifier you can clip onto the lens of your phone’s camera that does an excellent job of enlarging small subjects.
Since you don’t have peaches, the OFM will do no further damage this year if they behave there as they do here.
The two potential IDs above, OFM and Enarmonia Formosana (both tortrix moths), do not match the wing pattern of the pictured moth, but it does have a size, shape, and landed posture similar to tortrix moths.
There are hundreds of species of tortricid moths in Italy, you would need a website or specialty book or luck to find the exact moth.
This is the same moth species as those pictured by Exmil above.
Concerning Exmil’s comment above about Peach Borer: Those are sessiid moths and are totally unlike your pictured moth. Sessiids are wasp-mimics and are much larger.
I will continue looking for an ID.
C. spectrana is similar but not correct.
Bingo, it looks exactly like that. I saw on google the English name is Black Planthopper. I didn’t read anything about it being a borer but it could have caused the flagging. I’m not sure if I also have OFM
Unfortunately,this is a bad bug.Here is some information from Wikipedia:
This species is considered a major agricultural pest for several crops in tropical and subtropical areas (apples, coffee plants, oil palms, Citrus species, etc.)
Distribution and habitat
This species is widespread in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Vietnam. Recently, it has been accidentally introduced in northern Italy, possibly with ornamental plants or crops.[7][8] This species can be found in the low-elevation mountains and prefers dark environments
Borers at the very base of the trees? There are many poisons that can treat a specific area of a tree without using a lot ,and some here swear by neem oil, including the founding “leader”. If there are borers throughout the trees, obviously you will have to do what we call a full cover spray.
Quotations ae because I’m an anarchist, meaning I don’t believe and really cannot stand titled hierarchies. Fortunately, I don’t really expect other people to share my beliefs. However, if I owned this forum, I’d only have designated experts (and maybe, staff), people known by the community to be especially experienced and knowledgeable to help newbies know where the most legitimate advice might be coming from. Not that only experts have useful advice, but sometimes it can be hard to know who is spurting nonsense when conflicting opinions are given, especially if you are a beginner. I believe Scott qualifies as an expert.
That is amazing, the insect asked about is not even a moth. The antennae or a side view would have been a giveaway but were not visible in any of the posted pictures.
The tiny pinholes caused by the borers start at the base and go all the way up the trunk and about the first 10 inches of the scaffold branches .
The problem is I haven’t seen any insects that I think could have caused it except for this black large wasp looking insect that I saw for the first time ever this Spring. I never saw them on the trunks though, I only saw them up in the branches. It’s my understanding that whatever is boring probably is traveling UP the tree from the dirt, not DOWN the tree from the branches.
The problem is that most members of this forum live in the U.S., so we are not familiar with all of your pests. The chances are that commercial growers in your region know exactly what beetle and/or moth species tunnel into fruit trees as larva. In the U.S., every county has extension agents that can help even non-commercial growers identify specific pests.
Often pests do terrible damage while not being seen on the trees, particularly borers. You need to get local help so you know the specific life cycle of the borer species damaging your trees.
