how to prevent fruit tree borers
I've lost a few trees (peach and plum) to borers and I'm going to plant some new ones in the same locations. Will there be borers/larvae in the soil at these locations, even after I dig it up and throw the dirt around a lot? And what can I do to keep them away from the tree, is there some kind of physical barrier that could be used such as screening, or flashing inserted into the soil around the trunks of the new trees. Would painting the lower trunk and root crown make a difference?
I'd appreciate any ideas along these lines...I have a vague idea that the borers come out of the soil and enter the tree right at soil level, but I could use some more information in that area.
John
Comments (42)
Scott F Smith
9 years agoMost peach/plum borers are lesser peachtree borer moth. Its a moth that lays eggs on the bottoms of the trees. If your trees were fully dead/dug over the winter there will not likely be any borers in the soil, as they spend the winter as larvae in the tree wood and not in the soil.
For control, the poisons definitely work. I have been trying various lower impact methods. I tried the trunk/crown painting and it didn't help much at all. I don't think screening would work well but I never tried it. Tanglefoot applied to lower trunk and crown slows them down. The sticky stuff keeps the moths from being able to land and lay eggs there. The only problem is it needs refreshing when it wears out. Also, applying raw neem to same area is a related method. If the trees are young I would first wrap them with tape or rag or something before applying tanglefoot, it might damage the cambium on young trees. Also heat it up to make it easier to apply.
Scott
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9 years agoScott, JB
The last 5 years I have been wrapping several layers of reynolds foil from the soil line to 2 feet up the trunk of my trees and secured them with electrical tapes . So far I have been lucky with no borer problems and it also detered rabbits from chewing on the tree barks.
Tony
Jimmy Forester
9 years agoI have heard moth balls placed in the soil at the base of the tree works, but I have little knowledge on the subject
jbclem
Original Author9 years agoScott, thanks for the information. That's what I was looking for. I grow organic so I'm not going to be using any kind of pesticides. The Tanglefoot idea is interesting, I've used it on citrus trees to keep ants from harvesting aphids, and it's easy to apply. But taping the root crown might be difficult. I use yellow plastic construction tape that's about 2 inches wide. Do you know know how high up the trunk(and how low) the moth will lay it's eggs? Will the larvae go into the ground to get at the root crown?
Tanglefoot on the citrus trees slowly attracts debris and dirt and looses it's stickyness. But it's easy to just brush a new layer over the grime, and you can keep doing that for the entire season. I think the thickness of the Tanglefoot would be as much of a barrier as the stickyness.
Do the moths fly at night or in daylight...if night or at dusk, I could set up a mosquito light nearby. Is there a certain time of year when they are active...I'd guess springtime, but for how many months are they a problem.
Lastly, if I wanted to watch for the moths is it possible to see them flying around?
appleseed70
9 years agoAbove is a gigantic (for some reason) link to a turn of the century report from the Maryland Ag. Experiment station.
Funny all the things they were trying in the early 1800's up to the time of this report 1900 / 1905 are the very same things attempted today.
From a quick look-see it appears the only effective treatments were tanglefoot (though cambium damage noted as Scott also reported). painting with white paint and most effective (this was new to me) a 2" ring od tobacco dust.
The tobacco dust was even far more effective than Paris Green in encapsulant. For those of you who don't know, Paris Green was a very common lead arsenate poison used extensively at that time and up until the early 1940's.
Lead arsenates were replaced by the much safer DDT.Has anyone here ever heard of this tobacco dust method? I do know tobacco and it's derivatives have been employed as successful insecticides for years, but never heard of this dust method.
jbclem
Original Author9 years agoThis report from the Maryland Ag Experimental Station is a great resource. If you read through the long bibliography, at the end of the linked page, there are many more treatment/solutions mentioned, some favorable. There are many references of "mounding", a mound of soil around the base...which if nothing else forces the larva entry point higher up the trunk where it's easier to spot and easier to remove. There are two separate mentions of success using sand mounding, in an earthen cylinder or a plain mound around the base, also using a box to contain the sand.
I was able to download this report as a PDF file. The peach-tree borer part is near the end of this long report, it's listed as Bulletin #176.
alan haigh
9 years agoI would be reluctant to dismiss Scott's experience but also reluctant to dismiss this rather thorough research on dogwood borer- a very similar pest, where thick paint was a fairly useful deterrent.
In the past I've recommended wrapping the lower trunks with thin nylon screening, attaching it with rubber electric tape (to prevent any possibility of girdling or breaking when tree grows. I've never seen a study on this method but I thought the moths needed to reach the bark to insert the eggs.
Birds can make contact with tanglefoot and be killed if you put it on the trunks of trees. This is why I've taken it out of my arsenal of pest control. It is damaging to young trees when put directly on the trunk as stated and is a general PIA for being difficult to remove from anything. I used to use paper trunk wrap as a barrier for it- it was the easiest method I could find.
I always am amazed when people are so reluctant to use synthetic insecticides that they won't even allow a couple of squirts on the trunks of their trees. This is the tiniest drop in a huge bucket of environmental destruction brought on by the consumption of even the most conscientious environmentalist.
When I spray a whole tree I'm using 100 of times the material as treating the trunks when the spray is not even going on the fruit.
Not that I am not myself a bit of an organic fetishist. I hate to use anything synthetic in my vegie garden.
Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell borer research
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agoWe talked in other threads of adding joint compound to the paint, you could add insecticide while you're at it too.
Jimmy Forester
9 years agoSo, when do they lay their eggs? Late summer, isn't it? So you only need to have them treated for at that point? Are they a regional thing, or are they everywhere?
appleseed70
9 years agoHarvestman...the report mentioned also the use of paper and oil impregnated paper (I suppose roofing paper / underlayment) and both were found to be ineffective.
The rubber tape you mention sounds promising, but being an electrician and having used it a ton, I'm not sure adequate protection could be achieved without risk of girdling and or cambium damage.
Lorsban sounds like the way to go here. I am an environmentalist at heart as well and if small applications will save the tree then the environmental cost is well worth it imo . I'm with you on that for sure.
We all must remember that there is considerable embodied energy input to the production and delivery of the tree itself. If an alternative organic method fails then there is an environmental cost to that as well.
alan haigh
9 years agoAppleseed, I meant to use the paper with tangletrap, not alone, as a way of protecting the wood and to remove the tangletrap to burn when it becomes contaminated with whatever blows in the wind.
The tape was meant to hold nylon screen in place, but wrapping the entire trunk might work also, but I'd be reluctant to cover the bark that way. I have done so with girdled trees though, and it didn't seem to harm them.
appleseed70
9 years agoH'man....ok...I got ya'.
One thing I read yesterday mentioned borers moving higher up into the tree, even up into scaffold branches. I remember several months ago a poster (not a regular) mentioning borers damaging his tree up in the limbs.
Everyone told him it probably wasn't borers because they normally entered just above or slightly below the soil line at the trunk. Most felt it was likely canker or something similar. I didn't post, but agreed with the respondents assertions. This fellow posted photos also and the upper limb borer damage photos (certified by entomologists) I saw yesterday looked identical to his.
My point is that I think the respondents (and me) were possibly incorrect. It may very well have been borer damage.
Further possibly indicating that forms of mechanical protection may simply induce borers to move further up into the tree. This fellows post, nor what I read about indicated that mechanical protection was in place, but if borers do sometimes go further up, then this would be a reasonable assumption.
I have fortunately only had 3 cases of borer damage and all three were the typical "just above - just below" soil line) variety.
Has anyone here witnessed borer damage up into the canopy or further up the trunk?alan haigh
9 years agoThere is the lesser peach tree borer and dogwood borer that bore into branches and are very common here- just not nearly so lethal, although I've had 2 pear and one apple trees snap at the point of injury on the trunk, half way up the tree. That is out of scores of injuries that mostly heal.
I manage a small commercial orchard where they are a pretty big problem and require regular Lorsban aps.
Actually it is very rare for me to lose any peach trees to peach tree borers. If trees are groing vigorously they usually survive, even if I miss the damage the first year.
bob_z6
9 years agoI've had some borer damage higher in the tree on apples. Specificly Goldrush, as 2 different Goldrush are the only ones hit in that fashion, out of the dozens of apple trees. In fact, borers don't bother my apples much at all (one William's pride was hit near the rootstock), but impact almost all my peaches, except the one on Citation rootstock.
Here's the first one and the second one (most of the way down the page).
Harvestman, have you seen anything that indicates that GR is more attractive to borers, particularly the type that hit 5-7' high?
olpea
9 years ago"Lorsban sounds like the way to go here. I am an environmentalist at heart as well and if small applications will save the tree then the environmental cost is well worth it imo."
I agree w/ apple. Lorsban is an easy fix for borers with little practical impact on the environment.
I've had zero borer damage w/ trunks of trees I've sprayed w/ Lorsban. Not so w/ peach trees never have been treated for borers.
This post was edited by olpea on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 8:16
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agoLorsban was banned from home use as it is considered highly toxic and very dangerous to humans. So it doesn't do me any good as I can't use it legally. Not sure I would want to?
It is a neurotoxin and suspected endocrine disruptor, and has been associated with asthma, reproductive and developmental toxicity, and acute toxicity
On the label
Mist may cause irritation of upper respiratory tract (nose and throat) and lungs. Prolonged
excessive exposure to mist may cause serious adverse effects, even death.Scott F Smith
9 years agoGiven the small region you need to protect it seems to me there has to be some not super toxic method to control them. The tanglefoot method is halfway there, its a mess to deal with and you need to maintain it to really get control, but it can work. If there was some paint-like method that would be a lot better, but I tried really thick paint with no luck. Last month I added neem paste to my trial, I painted all the trunks and will check in spring to see if any borers are still alive. I am hoping there are enough neem "fumes" all about that they won't make it into moths.
Scott
alan haigh
9 years agoAny poison is dangerous if it isn't used properly, which is why more toxic materials are taken out of the hands of homeowners who do not always operate carefully or with skill- it would also hugely expand issues with disposal as homeowners are much more likely not to use materials up. Then most will just throw partially full containers in with the rest of the trash- and guess what happens when the container gets crushed by the compactor in the garbage truck?
Lorsban isn't the only synthetic that controls borers- you just need to get the timing right with pyrethroids and other affective and less toxic (to humans) materials.
Scott, are you sure borers weren't already in the trees when you painted them?
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agoYeah I will have to use something else. I'm used to handling dangerous material working in a lab, but I have been exposed to all kinds of chemicals at work, I don't need more exposure. We used to use benzene all the time for example. OK I will hope I can time things well!
olpea
9 years ago"Lorsban was banned from home use as it is considered highly toxic and very dangerous to humans."
Drew,
Yes, perhaps not for home use, as the label of 75wg states not for residential use, but a lot of folks on this forum don't seem to live in residential areas and have quite a few trees.The key is that this compound is not sprayed on most fruits relevant to our area (although it is sprayed on citrus, vegetables, cereal crops, but for the most part, they don't relate to our discussion.)
As far as the dangers of it, as you know many common home pesticides would be classified in the same terms as a neurotoxin, endoctrine disruptor, etc. If I were to shy away from any compound which stated the dangers to health on the label, I wouldn't be using anything. I used lots of stuff which have more severe signal words (i.e. more dangerous) than Lorsban - i.e. Captan, Echo, etc.
I'm not trying to encourage it's use, just offering my input that I agree w/ Apple, it is extremely helpful to me w/ very little impact on the environment.
As you know, benzene is much much more dangerous than anything we are talking about here. As a kid, I'm pretty sure I was exposed extensively to 2-45T (Agent Orange) which was a popular Ag herbicide in the U.S. in the 70s, so, like you, I have some concept of the relative safety/danger of compounds. Lorsban probably has a safety margin several powers greater in terms of long term health consequences.
alan haigh
9 years agoSorry Drew, but when it comes to endocrine disruption, I suspect you are being contaminated in a week from the intimate contact you and most all of us have with the plastics that bleed synthetic estrogen than you are likely to get from a year of pesticide application with any materials still used in agriculture.
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agoI have no objection to others using it, I'm just a rule follower.
I don't care what other people do. Yes, working in the lab we used it a lot (benzene) until it was banned from use. So I was exposed. Oh well, it's a good day to die.
Well harvestman I think you just explained my man-tits!appleseed70
9 years agoDrew...I hear you, I'm for the most part, a "rule follower" too. Not because I'm afraid to break a rule, but because I really am genuinely concerned about others which obviously goes hand-in-hand with environmental responsibility.
That said, are you sure (I'm not at all saying it isn't) it's illegal? KPS sells it to anyone and they are large enough to make it difficult to "fly under the radar" for regulators.
I mean were talking small targeted applications under low pressure high volume where overspray should be essentially a non-issue.Benzene is no good...there's no question in that and Lorsban isn't good for you either, but remember any food you don't grow for yourself will be grown by others who may not (most likely not) share our care for others nor the environment. Keep that in mind as well as the fact that failures have unarguable environmental costs as well.
Back to the tobacco dust. No feedback?....From anyone?
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agoI'm not sure it is illegal? I saw an article of it being banned for residential use in 2001, and Olpea says it says it on the label. We used benzene as a magnifier for light microscopes. i looked at hundreds of slides daily and would refill bottles of it all the time for use with my microscope. It was not pure benzene but an oil with benzene added to clarify or something? Not sure?
I miss using the microscope a lot. I was good at parasitic identification, best in the lab.
For a little while I got to work with an electron microscope at MSU, now that was super cool!
I didn't stay in the field of research long, or the hospital and ended up leaving the lab altogether . The reasons were mentioned in other threads. That darn rule follower attitude, i just couldn't lie anymore, it was wrong.
I often wonder what the point of the formal ethics training was for at MSU when seeking my degree from the college of Human Medicine at MSU? As it is obviously thrown out the window in real life situations. Bean counters trump ethics every time. Speaking of clarifying, you know the hospital i worked at was a private institution for profit, well you know they had ethics there! Even the top levels of management were ethical, and patient advocates. It was a beautiful thing! Sparrow Hospital in Lansing MI what a great institution! I left as I was not built to handle the job, for my own reasons and nothing to do with ethics. it was the government institutions that had absolutely no respect for doing the right thing. I worked for the feds and state government at two different jobs for 9 years. I'm not sure which was worse? Corruption was the norm at both. The good old boys. What an eye opener! So when you ask me to trust NASA or NOAA yeah right, I've been there done that, got the t-shirt. Politics rules the day. I know how the game is played, seen it with my own eyes, and seeing is believing. Sorry for the rant, I'm getting off my soap box now."If you fail to understand the reasoning of something, look at the bottom line" - Frank Zappa
This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 5:18
alan haigh
9 years agoThe definition of "residential use" can be complicated and pesticide labels may be the law, but not everything on the label carries equal clout or consequence.
I believe the legal definition by the EPA of residential use is within 100 ft of a human dwelling - it does not mean residential area or property that is the landscape of a residence. After all, most farms have residences.
Labels often note that to violate a particular instruction is prohibited, but the residential use statement is softer and may be there to protect the manufacturer from lawsuits rather than being based on actual statute.
Imidan has the same thing on the label and yet in CT it is not restricted and is commonly used in residential situations by commercial applicators that obtain it from suppliers of their residential landscape businesses.
Another thing to add to appleseeds point (funny how someone who thinks a lot like me I've often been engaged in arguments with) is that in home orchards the area being sprayed is relatively limited and the buffer of unsprayed land is usually extensive between "contaminated" sites- lawn chemicals being an occasional exception. Environmentally, it is an entirely different equation than 100's of acres being treated with any given chemical in a monoculture.
A lot of the danger of pesticide exposure is based on laborers working in fields of crops after spray. They sweat and rub against sprayed plants and the material usually will end up coating their skin. This exposure can be highly cumulative.
Scott F Smith
9 years agoHman, I painted in spring which should be before egg laying and had lots of borers that fall. I also dug out all the borers I could find before painting.
If I was going to do another painting experiment I would mix paint with latex caulking so I could get on a really thick layer. Another idea would be to mix in some neem with it for added bug control properties.
Scott
PS here is a page from that book Appleseed references, it shows all the stuff they used to try and the lack of results. Their conclusion is the best control is worming in late fall and in May. They didn't have good luck with tanglefoot either, I expect they did not keep a good coat on.
This post was edited by scottfsmith on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 8:57
appleseed70
9 years agoSeems like the tobacco dust only failed when not reapplied. I'm at a loss as to how they thought the dust would just perpetually provide protection.
Surely they understood it was an organic material and would decompose over time just like anything else.Scott...as to your point about "tanglefoot being halfway there" it seems it was "halfway there" in 1880 also. I agree it does seem like there should be some method that should be virtually bulletproof. Like you said, the region to protect is small. The fact that nothing has come forth in so long a time for such an important problem makes me question that though.
summersrhythm_z6a
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoBayer 12 Month Tree & Shrub Insects Control Landscape Formula II can do the magic.
mamuang_gw
9 years agoDo you read the label to find out if it is safe for fruit trees. One needs to be very careful when using root-fed chemicals for trees that we plan to eat their fruit.
summersrhythm_z6a
9 years agoGood question. May be it's not a good idea for fruit trees. http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/2012/3-21/imidacloprid.html
Michael
9 years agoMany years ago I started using Surround on my peach trunks and scaffolds making it up almost as thick as pudding and applying it with a paint brush. One of the 2 borers emerges with 50% bloom on the Catalpa trees in Spring, that's when I apply the goop. The thick coat lasts 2 or more months leaving a solid white veneer when gone. I have yet to reapply during a growing season and have had no borer problems. Maybe there are no borers here, don't know.
Fascist_Nation
9 years agoIn Los Angeles it is not uncommon to paint the tree trunks with a white, water based latex paint thinned to 50% with water. Besides preventing sunburn this supposedly prevents places for the borers laying their eggs. It has to be kept up and maintained annually as the trunk expands before the borers arrive and lay their eggs.
The second treatment is dormant oil sprayed on in winter which suffocates any eggs present in the bark.Any borers already in the trunk will remain protected from attack. Any holes you find about 1/4" diameter are emergent borers leaving an empty "nest." If the borers have successfully eaten the entire circumference of the cambium layer around the tree rejoining their tunneling (full circle) the tree will die within a year or two.
There are some attempts at spraying for adults. Such measures likely kill any predators (parasitic wasps mainly) as well and other beneficials. They are considered either ineffective or lore trouble than they are worth.
Sara_in_philly
9 years agoI had pretty severe borer damage on my peach tree several years ago, I had tried for over a year to paint the tree with latex paint, put mouth ball around the tree truck, just couldn't get rid of the borer. Finally I sprayed the tree with the pesticide bought from Home Depot, I only sprayed a couple of times, that finally get rid of borer. Haven't had any borer infection since.
Sara_in_philly
9 years agoWhat I did was not kosher: I bought Ortho Home Defense MAX Perimeter and Indoor Insect Killer.
Based on the recommendation of experts on this forum, I was looking for pesticide with Bifenthrin as active ingredient. But the things I found at HD shelves for lawn and garden are either very large package and/or require mixing. I only had a few fruit trees and didn't want to have a large package of pesticide sit at home. Then I saw Ortho's Home Defense MAX Perimeter and Indoor Insect Killer. It has the same bifenthrin as active ingredient. It's ready to use and in a small spray bottle.
I still has that bottle, it lists 0.05% bifenthrin as the only active ingredient.
I know this product is not rated for fruit trees. But the fruits were for my own consumption, so I assumed the risk.
And I only had to spray a couple of times in that one year.
I am not recommending anyone else to do it. This is just what I did:-)
Rick Langhorne
9 years agoLorsban is a restricted use pesticide in all formulations that I know about, so it would not be available to the home owner unless they have the proper license. In my area the lower trunk, scaffolds and ground are sprayed around labor day
MrsLizzy K
9 years agoOh heaven help me if this is a borer hole. This was at the base of my new Mirabelle from Raintree. I was suspicious enough to take a photo, but I didn't really think that a reputable nursery would send out a tree with an obvious problem, and I'm an amateur so what do I know... Should I be writing to them about it? There were also quite a few damaged roots, but I knew from the last set of bare roots I planted three years ago that trees can get started with fairly skimpy looking roots. Can anyone tell if this is a borer? I guess I'm at the base of a steep learning curve!
Sara_in_philly
9 years agoI am not experienced enough to say whether this is a borer. Mine was pretty severe when I discovered it. I am sure the experts on this forum will be able to tell you. Maybe you can use a thin metal piece poke in gently and explore to see whether there are some tunnels under the bark.
drmbear
9 years agoPlease avoid using the systemics like the Bayer product. Certainly it sounds good, but you are talking about fruit trees - trees that are pollinated by bees. When you use any of these types of products that essentially make the plant itself toxic to the borer, you are also making it toxic to pollinators, and ultimately the toxics are part of the fruit - something you want to eat. This type of product is another of the things that is having harmful affect on bees. We can find other ways.
Sara_in_philly
9 years agoThe borers are at the base of the tree, at least mine are. I am only spraying the affected area, there are no flowers nearby, therefore no bees.
rayrose