7 yr old fig trees infested with fig borers, can my trees be saved? Washington, DC

Ooh - scary stuff and so close to where I live!  I have yet to see this, fortunately.  Hopefully you will get some good advice here on the forum.

By the way, welcome to the forum Mary.  What kind of figs are you growing?

Mary,
  Ugh, that is heart-breaking!  Do a search on the forum for Ambrosia Beetles and/or Shothole Borers and you'll find 3 or 4 threads within the last month or two discussing these things.
I have been doing battle with these buggers as well.
  I recently received a large caliber container tree that was infested and cut to within 2 inches of the base by the previous owner.  Even the remaining 2 inches of trunk had active borers, and a couple of the larger exposed roots had one or two holes.   I am planning on cutting it flush to the ground so that it can regrow from the roots.  I've been spraying it with insecticide -- really saturating the bark, holes and sawdust plugs so that it soaks in and reaches the beetles.  Two applications has taken care of the majority of the active buggers (i.e. they're no longer pushing out sawdust and are presumed dead.)  I need to do one more application for 2 or 3 holes that remain active.  Then I'll cut it flush to the ground, check for signs of borers down into the roots, and spray it again.
  alanmercieca has some recent threads that deal specifically with cutting/treating large caliber trees.  He is trying out the technique of using a drill bit to drill out the holes and remove the buggers and the fungus they leave behind.  I've used the drill bit to just clear out some of the sawdust so that the insecticide I've sprayed will work its way into the holes better. 
  It looks like the borers have only found your tree within the last couple of days, so if there aren't too many holes you can try to do this treatment.  Otherwise, the tree might ultimately have to be cut to the ground.  You've already got buds/shoots coming up from the base, so that's a good sign!  You also might want to take some cuttings and start some air layers.  (You could take a bunch of cuttings and just stick them in the ground as a "Hail Mary.")  Painting the trunk to stop additional borers might be worthwhile, too. The tree won't die overnight, so you have time to take action.
  It is hard to tell from the pictures, but it doesn't look like any buggers have drilled into the trunk within the first couple of inches.  So, you may be in the same boat that Alan is in -- cut the tree, paint the stump, and watch it regrow!
  Good luck and keep us posted!
Jim

P.S. The majority of my trees and cuttings are still in my living room -- I don't even want to put them outside because these borers are actively flying around my area! 

Thank you for welcoming me to the forum, I am so happy to have found you all! I am uncertain of my fig tree variety as one tree (pale purple skin/red flesh) was a rescue from a friends property and the other (bright green skin/deep raspberry colored flesh, the sweetest thing I have ever tasted)was a propagated sucker off another friends tree. Over the past 7 years we've had a good yield and the trees have grown to 15 feet with a luscious green canopy. How 'bout you? What kind do you grow and how many do you have?

I am devastated by the infestation of these wood borers. I hope someone has some helpful advice!

I bet those aren't caused by any type of insect.  More likely root primordia:

http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/root-initials-or-fungus-on-fig-cuttings-6144918

Mary, you should post photos of the leaves and fruit (both whole and showing the "eye" and cut into halves) on the forum and see if your unknown figs can be identified.  Needaclone has posted some good advice; best of luck getting rid of the borers.

Thanx needaclone, really useful information. Question, when I paint the trunk, am I keeping the bugs in, keeping them out? Or starving them from oxygen?

Rob -- those are definitely not root primordia.  It is without a doubt the compacted sawdust being pushed out by Ambrosia Beetles (or perhaps more specifically, Shothole Borers) as they tunnel into the tree.
Mary -- The purpose of painting the trunk would be to create a barrier that will discourage new borers from digging new holes -- i.e. keeping them out.  I would not rely on it to kill the beetles that are in there.   (Alan's threads had more information about painting the trunk.) 
  Again, if there are a reasonable number of holes, you can try to treat each one.  I actually caught a bunch of beetles as they were just getting started, and I used a hat pin to probe the hole to crush them and pull them out.  You could try a hat pin, but Alan's idea of using a small drill bit is good because it would clear the hole of sawdust and allow insecticide to get in and kill the beetles.  Once the beetles get in, lay eggs and the larva hatch, most sources of information say there's not much to do but cut down the tree.  So, you might be able to make a "tactical strike" and kill them before they get to that point.
  Definitely do that search and read through the other threads.  (I'd look for them and post the links, but I'm at work...)
  Also, it has been noted that the beetles tend to go for weak/sick trees and not healthy ones.  One source of information said that stressed out trees that are getting too much water will give off ethanol (ethyl alcohol) that attracts the beetles.  (I have been using ethanol "rubbing alcohol" in some beetle traps, and I can tell you that it very definitely attracts the beetles!)  It is hard to tell from the picture, but maybe the tree is getting too much water.  (There's a little pill bug on the trunk in one pic -- they like damp places.)  All the rain we've gotten on the east coast this spring, in addition to the rainy spring we had last year, is probably not helping matters!
  I have made beetle traps out of milk jugs, and they seem to work better than the literature suggests the will.  They're giving me some peace of mind that I'm keeping at least some of the beetles away from the trees. 
Jim

Before we go nuclear on these beetles, are we sure they are actually doing significant damage to live fig trees?  I saw them the other day on a very large and old fig tree nearby.  Thing is though, I think it got killed to the ground level this past winter.  So they're effectively eating dead wood. 

I have 100 fig trees in pots, and not one is showing any sign of these beetles.  Also I don't understand some of the stuff I've read in that other post about them going after 1 inch growth.  In the picture above, as well as the old tree nearby, they were going into growth that looks at least 4 inches in diameter. 

Rob,
  I do honestly hope you'll never have to deal with them.  I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

  I have one tree that never broke dormancy last year.  Did the beetles come first and kill the tree, or did they move into dead wood? I don't know.
  I have a live tree that has multiple areas that are slowly being killed by the beetles, by the larva eating the cambium layer, or by the fungus the beetles "farm" blocking off the flow of nutrients.  Which of those three things is causing the damage?  I don't know, but it is a live tree with multiple dead spots and it has beetles.  I have no reason to believe that tree was stressed out or sick at all.
  I have another tree that was very stressed out this winter due to dehydration.  It was not dead, branch tips were dry, but roots were good.  It is not a dead tree, but the beetles were drawn to it like a magnet, leaving other trees nearby untouched.  Later, when the other waves of beetles started emerging, they were showing a lot more interest in my other "healthy" trees.  One could argue that maybe the trees are stressed in one way or another.  But they were definitely not dead.
  I have seen first hand (i.e. my eyes looking at my trees) beetles boring into trees/branches 1" diameter and less...actually, on branches down between 1-8"-1/4" diameter!!  Perhaps these beetles didn't read the literature about how they were supposed to behave ;-) 
  I've seen them going for Fig trees and redbud trees.  They're also in the HUGE oak trees in my yard, and in one other species of tree, too. 
  I don't mean to sound snippy at all -- I'm just stating my observations succinctly and maybe to the point of overkill.
  Bottom line, though, is that they just aren't drawn to dead trees.  They're also drawn to stressed out trees.  If I have stressed out trees, I'd like to un-stress them and make them happy, not give them up for dead. 
  And if there are enough beetles and not enough stressed-out trees to go around, will they go for the healthy trees?  I'm already taking a gamble by leaving 3 of my healthy trees out there with the beetles, but I don't want to take a risk and put the rest out!
Jim
 

Yes needaclone, there is saw dust activity I am able to push a thin gauge wire into each hole, about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Late last summer 2013 there were heavy rains when I first noticed the trees were in distress. The branches were girdled and cracked and with each wind the branches, which were beautifully leafed and loaded with figs would literally just break off at the joints and fall to ground. I would like to believe Rob, and hope it's not a bad infestation of bugs, but judging from the damage on nearby lilacs from borers I think it's inevitable that the figs are under attack and have been since last summer. I pruned off the worst of the galled up branches last fall and pruned off more just the other day. I may need to go nuclear on them and bring them to the ground and paint the stumps, since it looks like even if the main trunk leafs out, the bugs will eventually weaken any new growth. I' am attempting to add two more photos of what they look like at the moment. Again, thank you for all your wisdom and if you have any more thoughts I would love to hear them

PS having difficulty adding photos, website is freezing up my iPad and have to reboot, this is unusual for an iPad

Website doesn't like my pic size, here is the only one I think it will accept....

One last thing...I may have done an incredibly stupid thing that may have attracted this bug...I was having a squirrel war last summer, and read somewhere that you can wrap the branch with ripening fruit up with newspaper and clip it with a clothes pin to discourage squirrels and birds from stealing figs. In hindsight I wonder if the dew and rain dampened newspaper set off some kind of chemical that may have attracted these blasted bugs? It's a thought anyway. BTW, was unable to upload my other pics, the website didn't like it and crashed with each attempt, sorry for no further visuals.

Mary,
Have you tried to resize the photos first?
There is a limit on the file size of the pics to be uploaded.

Side note of nostalgia...this is how good the figs in my garden were last summer...

I found these in Virginia attacking a tree that was partially killed but was still alive near the base. The borers attacked green wood, with evidence of sap leaking from the holes. I carefully checked to find the lowest holes, and cut the plant below it, basically to the ground. I then covered the stump with topsoil so the beetle no longer has access to the plant. I also assume that the fungus is going to be in the plant at locations the insect has bored, so I wanted to cut out all infected wood. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Mike in Hanover, VA

Hi Mary and welcome to the Forum. Good to have another local joining in the discussion. Sorry to hear and see the damages to your trees, I'm going to have to get out and examine the base of my HC a lot closer. Scary that these critters are here in our AOR. Once again, welcome!

Mary,
  I'm definitely not an expert on this, but since you've already cut back most of the tree, if the rest of it looks pretty solid and there aren't too many borer holes, you could try killing each borer individually.  e.g. poke a stiff wire or pin into the hole to crush the borer, and then try to spray/squirt some insecticide into the hole for good measure.  Then watch the holes and see if any more sawdust is being pushed out.  If not, maybe you could plug up the holes with paint.  I was hoping Alan would see this thread and comment...but do look up the threads started by alanmercieca and read through them.  His thread talks more about painting (which I have not done) and also has some links to some additional reading material (which also discussed painting).  This would probably be an experiment, since much of the literature says you should just cut it down!
  On the flip side -- if it looks like there are too many borers to deal with individually, and/or if you think the remaining trunk sections don't look healthy, then you could cut the trunk down below the lowest borer.  Hopefully someone else will comment on your pictures in post 12 and 16 to let you know if that cracking is anything to worry about.  I don't have any trees that big, but I do have a couple of small trees that have that look to them.  (But I also don't have enough experience to know if it is anything to worry about!!!)
  Jim

Thanks Jim, Mark and Mike, I think I am going to cut to them to the ground tomorrow, the sawdust holes are increasing in number as we speak. The trees are outside my kitchen window and I can pretty much witness the destruction as it unfolds. There is bleeding sap as well. My neighbor's 25 foot fig is experiencing similar distress. I believe our neighborhood got hit by these bugs and I agree with Jim's earlier assessment, the wet late last summer put the trees in stress and this attracted the borers.

One hole leads to many. Update on fig tree borer problem. We dug into the trunk where there is outgoing saw dust activity. At the hole side, which is really no bigger than a pin point , we discovered at least 3 more holes deeper inside leading from the one hole inside. We dug into the live wood (poor fig tree!) about 3/4 of an inch deep and could not find any sign of the culprit. Whatever it is, it's tiny and not obvious but has done much damage as the base of the tree has dozens of saw dust holes. So the theory to poke into the holes from the outside and dig into the trunk to gauge the bug will not work as there are more than one hole leading off the main. I am having a piece of the trunk analyzed by an arborist and will let you know if I get any answers.

imidacloprid as a soil drench will kill them on living trees, nasty stuff though not the worst.  You may be able to call an arborist to come in a treat, i read somewhere that malathion works on them but I don't know.

Thanks Chivas...what is the name of the bug that is causing this?

Ahh yes...here is the culprit, poster Jim was right from the beginning. According to this site, I was right to cut them to the ground. My next worry is the Maples that are planted not too far away. http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/asian_ambrosia_beetle.htm

Darn it!!!!! Tree borers here in Maryland too. My wife and I were looking at our collection of trees yesterday, noting that our in-ground Celeste and Hardy Chicagos were finally starting to look good. We then noticed a few top leaves shriveled on one Celeste branch and on closer inspection, we noticed the telltale signs of the borers. Very small holes with streams of sawdust coming out. We quickly cut a major portion of this branch to the ground and burned it on the BBQ.

Here's one quick pix of the borer's hole with sawdust exiting. Pix two demonstrates the hollow interior where I'm sure the borers are having a ton of fun. I kept cutting back until inner pith looked good again. .....and the borers meet the smoke and fire of our grill. Pix four one can see the small bore hole.

Sad to snip and burn these Celeste branches. They survived this past winter's subarctic freezes and snows to now succumb to a miniscule beetle!

Just added another pix of the stumps that I didn't cut. I'm hoping I got the beetles before they moved lower.

Yup, that's it....grrrrrr. I noticed the bugs were in the green wood, closest to the ground, there appeared to be no activity in the dead wood. Blasted bugs!