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| I'm getting dead boxwood sections destroyed hollowed-out trunk of sections of my boxwood shrub. I have been trying for years to figure out what insects or disease are destroying many sections of my boxwood shrub causing large sections to die out.
Today I tore off part of the trunk of one dead section and found that the trunk disintegrated in my hand because it was dead and hollowed out. When I placed it on the cement, out came a hundred ants pulling out their larvae or aphids trying to save them. Are ants destroying my boxwood shrub? I heard that ants like honeydew that aphids produce and take houseing in scrubs and that the aphids do the damage. A guy at Home Depot thought it was mites, and I sprayed all my shrubs for mites, but it hasn't helped. Please let me know you know what's causing this. I didn't know ants killed plants, and one should I do about it? |
Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of dead hollowed-out boxwood branch
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Well, the guy at Home Depot clearly doesn't know much about mites if they think they tunnel through wood. The photo is grainy, but it does indeed look like something has tunneled in there. Possibly carpenter ants? I guess that begs the question, if insects are hollowing out the woody parts of the shrub, is it cause or effect of the death of the plant or parts of the plant? Carpenter ants, for example, typically work in dead or dying wood. |
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| Most ants like moisture, so it is hard to figure out what they are doing there, but I would guess that they are just opportunistic and liking something about the already dead wood. However, are the boxwoods in a wet area? Maybe there is rot going on. Ants would like that. Another cause for hollow stems are borers, but I don't know if boxwoods are prone to borers. I've not heard of it, but you could research that possibility. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 15, 12 at 8:25
| that wood.. looks like it has been dead ... a long time ... and i dont mean one season do you have any idea how long??? ken |
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