Sorry to hear about the borers. They have been a bane for me.

Re the small larvae, there are various opportunistic feeders on the damaged areas. I find many of these small white worm-like things which sounds like your white 1cm things. They are not borers.

Yes there are probably more eggs around somewhere.

Your fumigation chamber sounds like it will work well. I am still trying to do a lower impact way. This spring I painted hot tanglefoot around all the trunks from a bit underground to 4" high, and I haven't found a single borer since then. This was on 4-year or older trees.

Scott

There's nothing more discouraging than finding borers, working ones' tail off trying to combat them, and still losing the tree, after all of that effort. We all empathize with you. You more than likely have unhatched eggs and additional larva below the soil line. That's why when you spray, you do a complete soil drench at the same time. I'm not a firm believer in the moth ball method. It's not too late to do a soli drench with triazicide, and it's a lot easier and more full proof than what you're doing.

You may be on the best course of action according to your state's ag university's advice the link will take you to. I don't think you have to worry about eggs in the area, I would think the moths would only lay eggs on the peach tree itself. Anyway, I've never read about trying to kill eggs in the nearby vicinity as being part of the control. Might be something I just don't know about, though.

The plastic tent is a great idea- hope it doesn't hurt the trees in any way. The guideline says to remove the moth balls after a couple of weeks.

Here is a link that might be useful: peach tree borers

I had other plans for this BEAUTIFUL fall day, but I knew I needed to attend to my peach trees.

I believe most of the larvae I found were the lesser peach tree borer, as I did not find any tunnels, but rather crevices that were up to two inches long and less than a quarter of an inch deep. I was was wondering what people were talking about when they said you had to put a wire all the way up the hole, until I got to my EarliStar and I found larvae that were three times the size of the ones I had been finding, and they did have long tunnels. (I don't get upset with spiders or snakes, but grubs are another thing!) I hope it can survive this attack.

The most interesting thing I discovered was that I believe tree wrap will protect against them. I wrapped my trees last spring, and didn't re-wrap them this spring as I usually do. In the meantime I have been amending the soil and removing rocks, the result of which is that the soil ended up two inches or more above the bottom of the tree wrap.

The interesting thing is that on several of the trees the wrap had split. There were no borers underneath the wrap, but where the wrap had split, or wasn't buried too deeply, there were borers. This has lead me to believe that removing the soil and wrapping it every year will be a good preventative for borers.

I have used Jobe's Tree wrap.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Wrap Pro 4 in. x 20 in. Tree Protection

MHG, the Jobe's tree wrap sounds good. Do you spray for borers? Mrs. G

MrsG,

I have never sprayed for them before.

I was out checking my trees and almost all have some level of borer activity, with the associated handful of goop (often below ground-level). I killed as many as I could find (only a few), then painted everything with white latex paint.

One thing I noticed is that the one peach I have on Citation rootstock is the only one completely free of borers. I wonder if this is because Citation is actually a plum. I assume they attack plum as well, but maybe peach is the preferred target? Has anyone else noticed this?

According to this article, "Greater peachtree borer is an important pest of peach, nectarine, apricot, cherry, and plum."

I guess I have to check every stone fruit tree I have...yikes!

Here is a link that might be useful: Greater Peachtree Borer

Peach is by far the preferred target, in my experience. Borers have only attacked plums on a single year here in my own orchard-nursery while peaches are constant. I've never had plums attacked (mostly on myro, but some citation) in other sites I manage.

There is also the American plum tree borer that feasts on plums. I've had them and they are just as bad as peach tree borers. You treat for them the same way you treat peach tree borers.

And flathead apple borers will also attack opportunistically, just about any kind of fruit tree. So far, I've lost one apple and one cherry, and seen signs in the apricots.

I have only been hit on my almond so far. Knock on wood!

Borers first attacked a three year old Bavay plum of mine and destroyed it. This was now six years ago, as it was one of my first trees and I didn't understand the importance of spraying. The next year I lost a nectarine to borers and that did it. I can understand losing my apricot to a hurricane, but if there is something I can do to prevent the loss of a tree, I'll do it. I have sprayed for borers four times during the growing season for going on nine years now. I also spray the ground around the base of the tree when I spray. It all seems to work! My trees are like people to me. Except they don't talk back! They have different personalities and each one gives me a different fruit. The loss of such thing as one of my trees is unbearable. Mrs. G

Milehighgirl...I like the mothball treatment. Harvestman's link seemed to support it, I'd certainly try it too. Are you opposed to Olpea's regular method of applying Lorsban? I wasn't able to find it available online some time ago, but I didn't look very hard. You can probably find it. I think it has an uncommonly long effective period. I had a beautiful peach tree badly damaged by borers and did kill the larvae as you did, but using a fine semi-stiff stainless steel wire. Still it has never been the same since.
You've prompted me to go and check mine again as well.
BTW...like you, in my case they were well subterrainean too. Also like you, I discovered them quite by accident.

Milehighgirl thanks for this post. I will try to get out there this fall and check mine. I would have forgot to look again had you not posted this. We had about 10 peaches sprout from seed this year so I need to transplant those and then I will check the adults. We always dump the fruit scraps in a compost pile and bury them and once in awhile they sprout.

All formulations for root drench talk about how many ounces per gallon and the width of the tree to the drip line but they don't say how many gallons.

Additionally, my trees are espaliered. Some of my trees have a total width of 13 feet but are only 6-7 feet high and two dimensional which is not the same as a central leader tree that is 13 feet wide and 10 high.

So how do I figure what concentration for the root drench and how much of the mixture to pour around the tree?

Mike

Good question Mike I've noticed the same thing. Olpea probably could answer that for us.

"Olpea probably could answer that for us."

Thanks Appleseed.

Really though, I just been following the directions on the Lorsban label.

Like Milehigh, I've seen borers go unnoticed until I've dug grafted trees up to move to their permanent planting. Borers can be hard to spot. I've not seen any borers on tree trunks I've sprayed w/ Lorsban.

It's the only organophosphate I use, but I only spray it on the trunks. My formulation (75WG) calls for 4lbs. per 100 gal. for a trunk drench. When I spray the trunks, I let a little puddle at the base of the trunk, which is the recommendation of fruit extension specialists.

Lorsban is very toxic to borers, hence only one treatment per season is needed. It used to be labeled for subterranean termites, but isn't so any longer.

It stinks really bad.

I can't seem to find Lorsban here in NY. Any suggestions or substitutes that would work as well.

I do have IMIDAN which I picked up to have available for PC.

Mike

I use Triazicide and it works just as well. I only spray once during August, when the adult moths are at their peak activity. i also do a puddle at the base of each tree.
This is what I meant by doing the soil drench in my earlier post. A thorough soil drench, as you would do for termites, is not needed.

Mike,

I see Lorsban 75 WG on ebay. That's the formulation I use. It comes in five 1.25 lb water soluble packs. It somewhat pricey at $200 for 6.25 lbs. on Ebay.

My 2014 price sheet from Midwest Grower Supply shows the 6.25 lb. bag at $150, but you'd have to pay shipping.

I agree w/ Rayrose that a pyrethroid should also work fine.

Thanx

Mike