If you grow peaches, cherries or plums at your Allendale home and notice a gummy mess at the base of the trunk, peach tree borers may be the cause. These insects do their damage below the bark, right at or just under the soil line, where few people look. By the time a tree shows obvious stress, the larvae may have been feeding for a while. Below, we'll cover what peach tree borers are, the signs to watch for, why they're tricky to control on your own and who to call. If you're not sure what's attacking your trees or yard, our pest inspection services can help you identify it.
What Peach Tree Borers Are
The peach tree borer is a native clearwing moth. The adult moths are active in summer and look surprisingly like wasps. They have dark, steel-blue bodies and partly clear wings. Females often have a bright orange band across the abdomen, and males are slimmer with narrow pale bands. They don't sting. The damage comes from their larvae.
Larvae are cream-colored caterpillars with brown heads. They hatch from eggs laid on or near the trunk and burrow into the bark at the base of the tree. There, they feed on the living tissue just under the bark. They spend the winter inside the tree and finish growing the following season.
Which Trees They Attack
Peach tree borers feed on trees in the stone fruit family. In home landscapes, that includes:
- Peach and nectarine trees. Their favorite hosts.
- Cherry trees. Including some ornamental flowering cherries.
- Plum, apricot and related trees. Other members of the same plant group.
Young trees and trees that are already stressed by drought, injury or poor soil are hit hardest. Wounds from lawn mowers and string trimmers can make a trunk easier for larvae to enter.
Signs Of Peach Tree Borers
- Gummy sap at the base. Thick, amber-colored gum oozing from the trunk at or just below the soil line.
- Frass mixed into the gum. Reddish-brown, sawdust-like material stuck in the sap or piled at the base.
- Damaged bark. Loose, sunken or dead patches of bark near the ground.
- Declining growth. Yellowing leaves, weak new growth or dying branches.
- Pupal skins. Empty brown casings sticking out of the bark or lying near the trunk in summer.
Pulling back a bit of soil and mulch at the base can reveal damage that's otherwise hidden. Be careful not to injure the bark while you look.
Is It Serious?
A light infestation may only slow a mature tree down. Over several seasons, though, larvae can girdle the base of the trunk, cutting off the flow of water and nutrients. Young trees can be killed outright. Because the damage is hidden, it often gets worse before anyone notices. Peach tree borers don't infest the wood in your house, so this is a landscape problem, not a structural one.
Gum on a stone fruit tree can also come from other causes, including disease and different insects. That's another reason a careful look matters. If the damage is higher up the trunk or in branches, our guide to bark beetle damage covers another group of tree pests.
Why You Should Call The Pros
Peach tree borers are hard to manage on your own for a few reasons:
- The larvae are hidden. They're under the bark and below the soil line, out of reach of most sprays.
- Timing matters. Control works best when it targets the egg-laying period, which takes experience to time correctly.
- Fruit trees need care. Anything applied to a tree that produces food has to be chosen and used correctly.
- Look-alike problems. Disease and other pests cause similar gumming, and the right fix depends on the cause.
What You Can Do Now
- Protect the trunk. Keep mowers and trimmers away by leaving a mulch ring around the base, pulled back slightly from the bark.
- Keep trees healthy. Water during dry spells and avoid wounding the bark.
- Check each spring and fall. Look at the base for fresh gum and frass.
- Get expert advice. A certified arborist or your county extension office can confirm the cause and recommend treatment.
How EcoFusion Can Help
EcoFusion doesn't treat or inject trees, and tree care is a job for a certified arborist. Where we help is sorting out what you're dealing with around your property. Our NJ DEP-licensed technicians can inspect your yard and home, identify insects you're seeing and recommend the right next step, including whether you need a tree specialist. We offer free inspections with same-day and next-day service.
Gummy sap at the base of a fruit tree is worth a closer look sooner rather than later. Catching peach tree borers early gives the trees at your Allendale home the best chance to stay productive for years.