Gold Spotted Oak Borer Treatment & Causes In Southern California

Gold-spotted oak Borer are beetle pests that invade trees with low immunity or when they are drought-stricken. These pests infest the bark, creating holes in the tree until it dies. Thus, treating borers in trees is necessary to protect your precious oaks. The deep holes are made until the core. The borers lay larvae and take up the plant’s water supply and nutrients.

They attack one branch at a time until the tree is completely dried out and dies if you live in vital areas (USDA zones 3 through 8 and 3 through 9). Also, your oak trees are susceptible to diseases like Anthracnose, Bur Oak Blight, Oak Wilt, Powdery Mildew, Root Rot, Canker, Leaf Scorch, and Leaf Blister.

Borers are larvae of beetles or moths that develop beneath the bark of hardwood tree trunks. Their extent of damage often results in tree death. Gold-spotted oak borers (GSOB) are flat-headed borers native to San Diego, Riverside, and Orange County. Canyon Live, California Black, and Coastal Live oak are the most often attacked.

A fully grown Gold-Spotted Oak Borer is 10 mm in length, with a bullet-shaped body and golden to greenish-yellow spots on the sides. It mainly attacks unhealthy trees and devours them completely.

The larvae of the gold-spotted oak borer feed beneath the bark of red oaks, causing serious damage to the stem and critical tissues of bigger branches. After a few years of infestation, trees begin to deteriorate and eventually perish due to the harm inflicted by successive generations of this virulent beetle.

If you detect the presence of GSOB or its damage, take immediate action. The symptoms of infestation may not be prominent and the canopy will not show much changes. Any signs should be thoroughly checked and treated as required. Delaying will cause insects like galls, scales, aphids, borers, caterpillars, lace bugs, leaf miners, twig pruners, and more to invade your trees, making them vulnerable.

Treating Borers in Trees involves systematic trunk injection and organic pesticide. Control of Gold Spotted Oak Borer is tricky once their larvae feed within trees. So, GSOB treatment must be applied before extensive disruption to the vascular tissues.

An effective GSOB prevention program aims to eliminate further outbreaks or damage to suspected trees. Optimum Tree Nutrition can revive your oak trees’ vascular tissues and health.