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Bronze Birch Borer Research Paper

Decent Essays

Birch trees are a very lovely addition to your yard, but they suffer from one of the most destructive of all pest infestations: the bronze birch borer. This pest causes life-threatening damage to birch trees across the nation. Understanding these creatures and how to treat them can help clean them out of your yard forever.

Life Cycle

The life cycle of the bronze birch borer is incredibly destructive because every step of it somehow involves damaging birch trees. Adult borers eat the leaves of the birch tree to prepare themselves for egg laying. When they're ready, they will lay their eggs in cracks in the bark. And once the eggs hatch, the larva burrows into the surface of the tree.

Here's where the most damage is done: the bronze birch …show more content…

Intriguingly, they tend to be more attracted to birch's with white bark, such as paper birch and gray birch: as a result, they more rarely attack river birch, sweet birch, or yellow birch.

However, once they infest a tree they will continue to feed on it for years, causing severe damage to nutrient transport systems, which can cause massive leaf die offs, dead roots, and the death of the tree itself.

Range of Infestation

Wherever there are birch trees, the bronze birch borer can be found. However, they are more prominent in northern states and across the Canadian border. For example, they have been found as far east as Newfoundland and Maine and as far west as British Columbia and Idaho.

Treatments

Eliminating the bronze birch borer from your trees and restoring them to their natural health requires multiple treatment methods. First of all, you need to ensure the health of your tree by watering them regularly: one slow watering every few weeks should be enough. Next, you need to spread at least three-inches of wood chips around the base of the tree to hold in moisture. Most importantly: do not fertilize your trees when they are infested with the bronze birch borer: the extra growths can actually attract more birch borers to your

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