{"id":634,"date":"2016-06-06T17:11:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T21:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/?p=634"},"modified":"2016-06-06T17:11:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T21:11:33","slug":"prionus-root-borers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/2016\/06\/prionus-root-borers\/","title":{"rendered":"Prionus Root Borers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Picture1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have an old pecan orchard in decline, with limbs that get weaker and weaker each year, you may be seeing the results of the Prionus root borer. These insects are large, destructive beetles whose feeding essentially destroys the tree’s root system over time.<\/p>\n

\"Picture2\"<\/a>\u00a0\"1223177_giant_root_borers300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prionus root borers are particularly difficult to manage once they infest an orchard for a number of reasons. The woods are full of alternate tree hosts \u2013 Oaks, hickories, pines, grapes, poplars, etc. The females lay eggs in the soil near roots and the larvae feed upon and develop in the roots and soil until they pupate.<\/p>\n

\"Picture3\"<\/a>\u00a0Root damage from Prionus root borer<\/p>\n

UGA entomologist Dr. Jim Dutcher has done a lot of work on this particular pest in recent years. While it is difficult to\u00a0reach the larvae deep in the soil with insecticides, Dutcher’s work has shown that chlorpyrifos applied to the herbicide strip at a rate of 8 oz\/50 gallons of water\u00a0via a herbicide sprayer is an effective control method.<\/p>\n

The adults’ peak emergence as measured by light traps occurs in June. Panel traps baited with prionic acid pheromone to attract and capture the male beetles helps to give a good idea of when beetle emergence is occurring. If traps are used, those placed along the periphery of the orchard tend to catch more beetles, presumably as the males fly into the orchard from surrounding woods.\u00a0 Panel traps can be obtained from https:\/\/www.alphascents.com\/Traps\/traps.html<\/a> and pheromone can be obtained from www.contech-inc.com\/products\/insect-control<\/a>. Prionus root borers have a long life cycle\u00a0of 5 \u2013 7 years, making this a long-term\u00a0management problem. There is no\u00a0quick fix to Prionus root borer elimination.<\/p>\n

\"Picture4\"<\/a>\u00a0Panel trap for catching Prionus root borer<\/p>\n

If the trees are already in decline, they may need to be cut back to help bring the top of the tree back in line with what the\u00a0root system can support. In many cases, these trees also have crown gall and removal of the tree is the best option. However\u00a0when re-planting a new tree,\u00a0an application of chlorpyrifos as mentioned above will be necessary to give that tree its best opportunity in an infested orchard.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have an old pecan orchard in decline, with limbs that get weaker and weaker each year, you may be seeing the results of the Prionus root borer. These insects are large, destructive beetles whose feeding essentially destroys the tree’s root system over time. \u00a0 Prionus root borers are particularly difficult to manage once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/pecan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}