Tracey Bool Garden Writer
  • Home
  • Photo Gallery
  • In The Garden
    • Australian Native plants >
      • Brachychiton populneus
      • Correa pulchella 'Little Cate'
      • Correa pulchella ‘Ring A Ding Ding’
      • Eremophila racemosa
      • Grevillea iaspicula
      • Indigenous Foods and a World of Wonder
      • Lomatia myricoides
      • Lovely Locals
      • Lovely Winter Natives
      • Olive Pink: A Life in Flowers
      • Photographic guide of Native Plants
      • Poa labillardieri
      • Wahlenberia stricta
    • Fruit, Veggies & Herbs >
      • Green Zebra Tomatoes
      • Grow. Food. Anywhere
      • Growing Blueberries
      • Growing Chillies in Pots
      • Growing, Eating and Enjoying Radish
      • Growing Garlic
      • Growing Passionfruit in Canberra
      • Kembla Cherry Orchard: Seasonal Winter Maintenance
      • Maintaining Blueberries
      • Preparing veggie seedlings for planting
      • Pumpkin Tree Green Hubbard
      • Reaping the Harvest: Broad Beans
      • Scented Geranium
      • Snowpea 'Oregon Sugar'
      • Summer Hardy Perennial Herbs
      • Summer Savory
      • The Seed Savers' Handbook
      • The Vegie Box
      • Tomato 'Honey Drop'
    • Garden Creation & Maintenance >
      • Adhoc Gardening Tool Box
      • Bokashi Composting
      • Biofumigant Seed Crops
      • Canberra Soils
      • Clay Seed Balls
      • Comfrey Tea
      • Composting
      • Creating a Wildlife Friendly Garden: Reference List
      • Gardening Down-Under
      • Green Manure Crops
      • Growing and Maintaining Windbreaks
      • Handy Organic Sprays
      • Handy Tip: Plant Gazebo
      • Hardwood Cuttings
      • Let There Be Light
      • Local Invention: Downpipe Garden
      • Maintaining Citrus During Winter
      • One plant or Many, creating harmony in the garden
      • Photography in the Garden
      • Plant Selection and Design Considerations
      • Protect Your Garden from Jack Frost this Winter
      • The Art of Pruning
      • The Key to Successful Seed Germination
      • Tree Borers
      • Tree selection with Christine Rampling
      • Winter Maintenance and Preparing for Spring
      • Yates Nature’s Way Citrus & Ornamental
    • On The Forage Trail >
      • Chickweed
      • Fat Hen
      • Foods of the Forest: Canada
      • Fruits of the Forest, On a Roadside Near You
      • Native Raspberry
      • Purple Salsify
      • Shepherd’s Purse
      • Sticky Weed
      • The Overlooked Bounty - Free Food
      • Wild Salsify
    • Ornamental plants >
      • Arbutus unedo
      • Loropetalum chinense 'Burgundy'
      • Pineapple Sage
      • Plants of Nepal
      • Taxodium distichum
    • People & Places >
      • A Garden for all Seasons with Deb & Adrian
      • Aquaponics and Natural Beekeeping in Suburbia with Karen Dahl
      • Botanical Artist Cheryl Hodges
      • Cacti and Succulent Extravaganza
      • Canberra City Farm
      • Community Gardens Abroad
      • Crookwell Seed Potatoes
      • Edna Walling
      • Good Life Permaculture
      • Gardens on the Move with Barbara
      • Gardens to Visit in Vancouver BC
      • Goulburn Community Garden
      • Handy Resource for Eating Seasonally in Canberra
      • Historic Calthorpes' House
      • Historic Kentgrove Goulburn
      • Kembla Cherry Orchard Royalla NSW
      • Lanyon Homestead
      • Melliodora Permaculture Gardens
      • Parkesbourne Produce
      • National Bonsai and Penjing Collection NAC
      • Out and About in Namadgi
      • Permaculture Systems with Organic Gardener Christine
      • Plants, Bees, Veggies and a Preserving Wonderland
      • Revered Bonsai Artist Tony Tickle Visits Canberra National Arboretum
      • Richard and Pheap's Garden
      • Royal Sydney Botanic Gardens
      • Roogulli Garden
      • Shona's Garden
      • STEP into Canberra's Local Plant Space
      • The Crisp Galleries
      • Village Life in Nepal
      • Westbourne Woods Arboretum
      • Wynlen House Farm
    • Permaculture >
      • Borage
      • Bringing in the Good Bugs
      • Comfrey my garden Back to Life - Symphytum officinale
      • Grown & Gathered by Matt & Lentil
      • Jerusalem Artichoke
      • Marigold
      • Pip: Australian Permaculture Magazine
      • Queensland Arrowroot
      • RetroSuburbia
      • The One Straw Revolution
      • The Weird and Wonderful World of Compost Brewing
      • Urban Homesteading Goulburn Mulwaree Library reference list
      • Yacon
    • Preserving the Harvest >
      • Preserving the Harvest
      • Preserving Rhubarb
      • Rosehip Tea and Cordial
  • Recipes
    • Baba Ganoush
    • Barbara's Passionfruit Muffins
    • Chocolate & Feijoa Muffins
    • Curly Fries Slinky Style
    • Double Choc & Raspberry Muffins
    • Luscious Berry Ice Cream
    • Mediterranean Roast Vegetables
    • Quince Jelly
    • Rhubarb Chutney
    • Seasonal Garden Salad with Bocconcini and Sourdough Bread
    • Spicy Apple Muffins
    • Spicy Pumpkin Soup
    • Tabouleh-inspired Barley Salad
    • Warm Tomato Salad
  • Open Gardens
  • Resources
  • About
  • Contact
  • Past Events
    • 5th Ainslie Open Houses and Gardens
    • Bonsai demonstration with Mauro Stemberger
    • Build living soil workshop at Curtin ACT 19 May 2015
    • Braidwood Open Gardens
    • Open Garden: Christine's Garden
    • Crookwell Potato Festival
    • Environmental Film feature at Palace Electric Cinemas
    • Fetherston Gardens Open Day
    • Lanyon Plant Fair
    • Open days at Melliodora Permaculture Farm
    • Open Gardens Australia – Jackie & Bret’s Garden
    • Open Gardens Australia – Terroux Garden
    • Preserving the Harvest with Permaculture eXchange: Food Preserving using Sugar and Vinegar
    • The Weird and wonderful world of plant collectors
    • Urban Agriculture Australia springs back into action!
    • Workshop: Planting a Medicine Garden
    • Wynlen House - Garden to Plate Slow Food Lunch
               Bark and Wood-Feeding Insects: Tree Borers
                                     (21 August 2014)

Tree boring insects are a not-uncommon sight on evergreen and deciduous trees and woody shrubs in the neighbourhood. There are lots of different types of borers, many of which attack dead wood only and are therefore beneficial to the garden ecosystem. However, there are also borers which attack live wood with often dire consequences. Some plant genuses are more prone to borer attack than others, such as Acacia, Gleditsia and Albizia (Silk Tree), for example. The occurrence of borers generally indicates health-related stresses including drought, poor soil and nutrition, human interference, or nearing the end of its productive lifespan (i.e. the subject in question has one sizeable bucket well and truly lined up in its sights).

Discovering borers in your garden doesn’t mean you should rush off and purchase the meanest sounding pesticide to douse them with either; in fact, using pesticides in many cases is ineffective and costly. With this in mind, firstly assess the tree affected and consider/observe the following:

  • Is the tree a potential threat to your home, person, or that of passerby? A fallen limb from an established tree could cause significant damage to buildings, vehicles and most especially, people. If you are at all unsure, employing an arborist and seeking professional advice is easily the best way to go;
  • Does said tree look past the point of no return? Are you attempting to rejuvenate a plant that is more dead than alive and any ‘help’ from you is prolonging the inevitable?

  • Has the tree in question been planted somewhere it shouldn’t have, making it susceptible to pest and disease attack, including from that of borers? Should you consider removing it anyway and replacing it with a more suitable species?

 
If you have ruled out the above concerns and would like to persist with and treat your tree for borer, you can try carrying out the following if practical to do so:

 
  • Maintain health of tree to highest possible standard by ensuring you are meeting its fertilising, watering, pruning and mulching needs; 

  • Judiciously prune and remove damaged branches – this won’t be possible if site of damage is located on central leader or sizeable branches of tree;

  • Clear away frass (chewed up excrement and plant sawdust) from borer site and scoop out borers with a hooked piece of wire or similar. Applying fungicide and filling holes may help prevent fungal attack in some instances;

  • Or alternatively, if safety is not an issue, enjoy the tree while it lasts then let nature take its course by providing local wildlife with a tasty snack and your mulcher with a sizeable pile of material afterwards.

Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.