Some heavily infested trees in your proximity will have died during winter, and the beetles inside are getting ready to “jump ship” – hundreds of thousands of beetles are preparing to disperse, and they are looking for your uninfested trees..
Have you implemented a strategy to fight this?
We have just updated our PSHB Workshop material, adding latest information around treatment and control protocols. On Spring Day we conducted our 6th PSHB Workshop in Johannesburg and it was fantastic, here is our itinerary for this spring:
Durban PSHB Public Meeting – 13th Sept
Durban PSHB Workshop – 14th Sept
Bloemfontein PSHB Key Stakeholder Meeting – 26th Sept
George PSHB Workshop – 5th Oct
Cape Town PSHB Workshop – 7th Oct
Johannesburg PSHB Workshop – 18th Oct
Email us to enquire about an events and we will forward you further information.
Training the DAFF plant inspectors
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) chairs the National PSHB Steering Committee, and on Friday their plant inspectors were given practical training around this invasive pest.
Anton Moller, an arborist actively fighting PSHB, led the DAFF Plant Health team around Johannesburg to learn about PSHB. Whilst it is easy to find PSHB anywhere in Joburg, Anton took great care to find examples of indigenous trees so that the plant inspectors could learn the signs and symptoms that they would find in rural and agricultural South Africa.The penny dropped around the serious extent of this PSHB crisis when the following comment was made by one of the Plant Inspectors:
“..but these are the same trees that I have at my home in Limpopo“
Shot Hole Borer has hit the Drakensberg
Latest data submitted to TreeSurvey shows that PSHB has been discovered in several new location around the country. These are not new infestations, they are already well established, people in the area just did not know about the beetle..!!
Watch this space… we are releasing new TreeSurvey PSHB National Distribution Maps later this week.
Contact us if you require detailed distribution data in a localised area.
What can you do?
Help us with data. We are researching tree mortality, send us quarterly updates (with photos) of your trees using TreeSurvey, tell us what you’ve done to control the beetle and to treat your trees. Help us to generate data around the mortality of different tree species, and allow us to understand the results from different treatment protocols.
