Protecting South Africa’s trees from the shot hole borer

The polyphagous shot hole borer (PSHB) is a relatively new threat to trees in South Africa. Yet such has been its trail of destruction that researchers, scientists, horticulturalists, tree farmers and landscapers have been left scrambling for a cure. The problem is that once a tree is attacked by PSHB, little action can be taken to save it. All that remains to be done is to fell the entire tree, dispose of the deadwood appropriately, and hope that the pest has not spread to any other trees. Around the globe, the PSHB (Euwallacea fornicatus) has a wide range of hosts, and can infect over 200 species of trees.

THE BEETLE

Prof Wijnand Swart, head of plant pathology at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, is one of the researchers who has been alerting the public to the presence of the pest in that it introduces into the tree.