What is eating my Cherry Tree??

Gareth1

we bought our first house during Lockdown 1. We have, what we are told is a ‘prolific’ Cherry Tree. My initial googling suggests Peach Tree Borer. I’ve pulled out three of these guys and removed the frass, blasted it with water and wondering what to do now. Whether we can save this beautiful tree. We haven’t yet seen what it can do!

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Gareth1. It's great to have you join us and many thanks for your question.

Let me mention @Adam_W to see what he can suggest for what I assume to be Borers. I've heard bending a thin piece of wire into a hook and fishing them out of the holes can be effective however they seem to have done a significant amount of damage there. Perhaps Adam can tell us if Hovex 2L Termite Defender would be something you could try as it indicates it is for Borers and is suitable for use on trees.

Mitchell

Adam_W

Yes, definitely fruit-tree borer. Grrrr... hate borers.
The Hovex product would no doubt be effective but may be a case of duck hunting with a bazooka... way too hard-core for a domestic situation like this IMHO. (read the MSDS... pretty scary...)|
My treatment for borer is pretty much as you've done... clean the frass away so you can see what you are dealing with and then use a fine bit of wire to poke & stab them or, something I've done many times that's very effective, is to spray a pyrethrum mix into the hole, really flood it. They'll either crawl or drop out almost immediately.
An old school method is as above but put kero in the holes. Just a little using a syringe.
Thing to watch out for afterwards is rot it the damaged areas.
Good luck!

Gareth1

@Adam_W

Adam! Thanks for the reply.

Have done as you suggested. Is there anything I should do to patch up the gaping wound left behind?

Some of those tunnels are impressively deep.

MitchellMc

@Gareth1,

You can certainly paint the area with Brunnings 250ml Steri-prune Sealing Paint. This product is normally used to seal an open wound and the damage to your plant looks fairly aged. It still wouldn't hurt to give it a good couple of coats though.

Mitchell