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.