I transplanted some peach trees from a nursery bed to the orchard today and all but one had a borer in them. It was fairly simple to dig the worm out with the tree uprooted but pretty disappointing that so many had damage. See his little head poking out? .
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Was there frass/ooze coming out of the tree above ground or you only saw when you transplanted? My trees got hit hard last year.
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The fras was just below the soil line on most of them. The borer had traveled up the trunk sometime but they were all tunneled down into the roots when I found them, probably trying to stay warm this winter
Borers have been unusually bad here. For the past few years I’ve been just spot treating. It’s bad enough this year I need to treat the whole orchard for them.
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What will you use to treat them
I use Lorsban. It’s very effective, but isn’t very convenient for backyard orchards (pretty expensive per pack). After it warms up a bit, I’d like to go through and spray all the trunks.
There are several pyrethroid class insecticides which help control borers, some of which come in backyard formulations.
From the Midwest Tree Fruit Spray Guide:
Warrior (Lamda cyhalthrin)
Pounce (Permethrin)
Asana (Esfenvalerate)
Baythroid (Cyfluthrin)
If you want, you can Google the active ingredient and come up with many non commercial formulations with the active ingredient. Some formulations are labeled for borers, others not.
And of course, the old trick of moth balls around the tree works pretty well.
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