Wednesday 12 July 2017

my service bush got bored

Bit of a disaster in zig-zag Habitat pot #1. I started noticing this in the pot. At first I thought it had something to do with ants, but the ants were ignoring this stuff. Then I thought maybe spiders, but it kept piling up, and I never saw anything hatch.

borer beetle in a service bush

Then I noticed that there was an odd depression a little way up the trunk, and that sometimes these things were stuck to it. Hmm. I set off to my favourite gardening forum and google at the same time and discovered that sometimes, just sometimes, a stressed or droughted Amelanchier....

borer beetle in a service bush

can get borer beetle. And sure enough, further up, I found a flight hole, and more frass (it's woodborer frass - essentially excreted sawdust). So I don't know if I have two beetle grubs or one big one with a long track or if there's loads in there, but in summary, bum.

borer beetle in a service bush

I really like my Service Bush. Can it survive? You can't treat this; you can cut out the infested wood but in this case that would be the main stem of the plant; the bush still has leaves and the leaves are still green bar one branch with a bit of die-back. They're noted for their astonishing toughness and tolerance.

It's a watch and wait and mulch and feed and hope kind of situation..

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