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Borers In Olive Twigs

Categories: Pests and Diseases of Plants

There are quite a number of olive trees in this locality that have

something wrong with them. They make a growth of five or six inches and

the center twig dies back, then it sprouts out at the sides and makes

another growth in the same way. This makes a thick bush instead of the

tree coming up as it should.



The dying back is caused by a beetle which bores into the twigs. The

twigs above the point where the beetle enters dies and then, of course,

buds come out from healthy wood below. No treatment has been devised

against it, though its breeding ground is limited if all dead wood and

brush and litter is cleaned up and twigs are cut off below the point of

injury whenever the work of the insect is seen.



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