Shot Hole Borer in South Africa – PSHB

PSHB WhiteBoard Script

The shot hole borer is a tiny flying beetle that is killing your trees, it forms large colonies inside your tree killing it from the inside.

The beetle comes from Vietnam where trees have natural resistance and where natural predators keep the beetle under control.

Wood containing the beetle was used to build shipping palates, and the beetle started to spread around the world.

10 years ago the beetle was discovered in California and Israel, where it devastated urban forests and agricultural trees.

Unlike most borer beetles which live in dead wood, the shot hole borer attacks living wood, and it is indiscriminate in the trees it attacks since it does not eat wood, rather is eats fungus that it farms inside the tunnels. This fungus kills the trees.

Shot hole bored has been unidentified in South Africa for a few years and we have already lost many trees. Only during the past year has the beetle been identified and the national extent of the problem understood.

This beetle is an invasive pest that threatens our cities, agriculture, and indigenous forests – it has just been found in the Kruger park.

We need to take action, report the beetle so that authorities can respond and take appropriate action. Some trees can be treated with chemicals, other trees need to be removed and burnt so that the beetle can be controlled.

We need to create awareness now, once the trees are dead it will be too late.