Has anyone seen anything like this?
  I purchased this Sicilian Red from another forum member in late autumn 2012 as a nice 2 year old tree.  It was probably about 4' tall.
  After being dormant for the winter of 2012-13 the top branches were dry/brittle/dead, but it put out 4 branches from the main trunk over the summer of 2013.  I eventually clipped the dead top branches off.  This tree also had what looked like a crack near its base that looked like it was starting to scar over.  Over the course of the summer it I noticed one or two areas where it looked like the bark was dying.
  So, fast forward to April 2014.  This tree seems to have 5 distinct spots where the bark is dying off, and they seem to be getting bigger/worse over time.  First the bark looks like it is sinking a bit, then it develops a dry/cracked look, and if you scrape it a bit the bark will come off pretty easily.  The wood below the bark doesn't look good.  I can only describe it as "dry rotted."  You can dig into it relatively easily with your fingernail.
  There does not seem to be any obvious sign of insects, mold, fungus or anything else going on. As the pictures below show, it is occurring at the top, middle and base of the tree.

Here's a shot of the tree in a 3 gallon pot, just starting to break bud.
 

Here are some shots of the dead area at the top.  Some of the close-ups on the right show the delineation between the dead/live area.  The dead area seems to be moving down below what had been the top-most live node, where there is a nice new branch.
       

The next pictures show a damaged spot 18" from the base of the tree.  It is 3" high and 1" wide.  It goes halfway around the trunk, which is about 1" diameter here.
 
This next area is about 4-5" from the base.  The area of exposed wood is about 1-1/4" long, but the affected area is actually about 2-3/4" from top to bottom.  You can see an area of light gray dead/dying bark around the wood.  It is hard to see, but this area actually extends below the exposed wood for about 1-1/2" or so.  (Think of a very elongated upside-down teardrop shape. There is only a subtle color difference in the bark, but the bark is sunken down a bit.)
 

These next two shots show an affected area at the base of the tree.  I is 3" long by 1" wide, but it probably extends below the soil level.  The trunk is about 1-1/4" wide here.
 

Finally, here are some shots of an affected area on the other side of the base.  This is 1" long by 3/4" wide, but it also probably extends below the soil level.
    

Has anyone seen anything like this before??
What kind of treatment do you suggest?  I sprayed some Physan20 on it, and I'm thinking of following up with a good dose of neem oil.
Should I be thinking about air layering some of those branches ASAP!?!?

Jim

am i imagining things or all the pix have tiny holes on the wood?

Jim, was the new growth from the trunk or from the root ball itself?

I see the tiny holes, too Pete.  Aloha, Jim, have you seen any discharge or pulp/sap coming from the damaged areas?  If so, there's most likely some sort of borer bug having a good ol' time.  I'd start air layering just to be safe or you could just take the viable cuttings and propagate those.  I hate to say this, but that's how my Excel plant started to die off.  

Nate 

Borers are bad.  I didn't know they liked fig wood, but maybe any wood wood do........  Indoor latex paint diluted 1:1 with water and painted on the trunk and limbs will prevent borers.  But if you have em, not sure how to get rid of them.  How about swabbing all the holes with alcohol and soap?

Suzi

Lower pictures look like bark beetle grub damage.

I would do an airlayer .

Jim,  all is not lost as long as the borer bugs haven't gotten below the soil line.  What I wound up doing was taking the tree all the way down to the base.  I took the remaining cuttings and propagated them.  But I kept the stump right where it was and left it alone.  After segregating it in the yard from the rest of my trees (scared that the bore bug(s) might immigrate to another tree) about a month or so I noticed a shoot breaking surface.  And no signs of bore bugs in any other trees.  Yay!  So all is not lost, brudduh!  Mahalo.

Nate

 
 

How will doing an airlayer prevent the beatles from invading the air layer too?  I know nothing about borers, but I imagine they lay eggs in those holes, and when they hatch, they begin munching and laying again.  Just a guess, but keeping them out of the air layer might be tough.  An isolated cutting might be safer?

Suzi

Pete   --  Good eye!  I took a closer look with a bright light and a 2X magnifier.  Most of the hole are just cracked/dry bark.  However, a couple of the holes in the bark seem to be pin-prick-sized circular holes.  And looking more closely at some of the exposed wood, I can see what look like larger holes (e.g. like 1/32" diameter) and what could be side-view tracks/trails of something that was doing some boring under the bark.  It is hard to tell them apart from where I poked/pressed with my fingernails, but I can convince myself that they're there.  If I carefully pulled away some of the dead bark, I might be able to find more evidence.

Mike --  New growth was from the trunk itself, not the root ball.

Nate -- Aloha!  No sign of pulp/sap from the damaged areas now...and I don't recall seeing any during the last growing season any time I checked.  It's just more like a dead zone that is slowly expanding.

Suzi --  I'll have to investigate appropriate treatment for borers.  Maybe something systemic that will get absorbed into the tree itself and discourage/kill them.  I think Neem oil can have both topical and systemic applications, but I wouldn't mind also treating this with something stronger.

Even if I stop the borers, I worry about the long-term health of the plant with both sides of the base of the trunk having been attacked, and one spot on the side going halfway around.  However, if I can kill the buggers off and get this tree stabilized and otherwise healthy, I can get some air layers going, get cuttings from the main trunk.  And if the roots are intact/healthy, hopefully I'll get shoots off the 3-4 yr old rootball.

Thanks for all the help so far -- I'm still open to any and all ideas and suggestions.
Jim

PS -- I have a Kadota that never broke dormancy in 2013.  I waited until the end of summer before declaring it dead.  When I was discarding it last autumn I noticed that the roots still seemed pretty healthy!  The tree was completely dried/dead just like the top of this tree, and it went down below the soil level.  However, down below the soil level there was still some healthy trunk left, so I just cut away as much of the dead as possible and repotted it for the winter.  I still have the dead trunk/branches -- I'll have to dissect it to see if it has any of the same symptoms as this Sicilian Red.

These things are very disturbing.  I had another thought.  120 degree water will not kill the tree, but it might kill the insects.  I would be inclined to turn that tree upside down (securing the dirt with tape first) in a hot tub and let it soak for 10 minutes.  There's stuff on the web about heat treatments. 

Suzi

Soil drench with admire will kill the borers, it is a neonicitinoid so I doubt you will be able to buy it but a tree service might be able to get it for you, here in Canada they have been known to put a trunk implant of it onto ash trees to kill ash borers.

Bayer Admire has imacloprid.  We use Merit.  It's expensive, but lasts a long time.  We get Merit at the Agricultural Supply store where the commercial growers shop.

Suzi

it is disturbing. most of us have more than few trees. one nasty borer can cause huge damage. i wonder if they can survive hot summer temp of above 100... 

i would get rid of the entire plant with the pot and soil, whatever eating the tree out of it's life is going to get to the next plant and next... if you let them.

I just found the Kadota trunk I cut off a couple of months ago and took a closer look.  Appearance-wise it looks similar to the Sicilian Red, except that the entire 2-1/2' tree was dead.  I started peeling away some of the bark, and it didn't take long before I found some small, black beetles about 1mm to 1.5mm long.  There are signs of boring under the bark..."trails" along the wood and occasional holes into the wood.  I got a couple of mediocre pictures that I'll post shortly.  It is hard to tell after the fact if the damage was done by these beetles or if the beetles moved in to consume the dead/decaying wood after something else killed it.  This piece of trunk was sitting on my deck unprotected all winter and was exposed to all the extended cold and snowy weather we had all winter.  It is scary that these little beetles survived that!
  I have some imidacloprid that I used to treat some scale 2 winters ago -- I'll read up more to see if it is recommended for boring beetles.
Jim

kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out. better yet, burn 'em to hell. then again i remember monty python's song ... 'all things dull and ugly'... god created them all...

let us know what you find out. any solution to this problem will help us all.

Here are some pictures I was able to get.  These guys are very small.  The first two I found were just over 1mm long. The third one (last picture) as 1.5-2mm long.
       

 
Jim

Jim, this is what I found doing a precursory search on wood borer-type beetles:

Woodworm beetle 1 – Common Furniture beetle

The most common form of woodworm beetle is the common furniture beetle. The common furniture woodworm beetle (Anobium punctatum) is a wood boring beetle measuring 2.7-4.5mm in length and has a brown ellipsodial body with a pronotum resembling a monk's cowl.

  Well, based on the size, shape, apparent damage, and searching I've done in the last hour, I'm leaning toward these things being something called "shothole borers" -- types of fruittree bark beetles or ambrosia beetles.
  Here's a short 1-page overview: http://jenny.tfrec.wsu.edu/opm/displaySpecies.php?pn=530
  And here's another:  http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/insects-mites/shothole-borer

  Doing a google image search on shothole borer brings up lots of pictures of these beetles and the damage they do.  Many of the pictures seem to be of large infestations on big trees, but some of the shots of smaller trees and look more like what I'm seeing.

  In general, these buggers get under the bark and dig out tunnels and lay eggs.  The larvae and adult beetles will dig around and eat the Xylem/Phloem layers between the outer bark and inner wood -- which may be what is causing that "sunken bark" look to the pictures I posted above.  Some species also cultivate a symbiotic fungus within the tunnels!  When larvae pupate and subsequently turn into adults, they burrow their way out -- which is also what makes the little round holes on the surface.  The adults hang around a while and then go back under the bark and start it all over again.

  I live on 1.3 mostly wooded acres.  I've got lots of oak, some maple, some tulip, sassafras, and a recently-identified pignut hickory.  I've seen borer damage similar to this on other trees in the yard, though often from different (larger) kinds of beetles.  I don't think that the problem will just go away if I discard this tree, so I think I better set my sights on treatment options and keep tabs on things.

Jim

Hmm wonder if they can survive in dormant fig plants when temps go into the teens .
Never had this problem here and keeping twigs crossed never will.

I would you say you've found your culprit.  Is there hope in saving your tree or at least cuttings?  Air-layering might be a little too late in the game, would you think?

Nate

I think a lot of our posts are "crossing in the ether" -- i.e. we're writing and sending them at the same time...

Nate,  I think the buggers I'm looking at are a cousin to the one you found.  These guys are smaller, but I think they're related and do similar damage.  As far as air layering goes, this tree is just beginning to break bud, so I think it is too early to start.  However, the branches look good an healthy, and the damage seems to be very localized and acute -- i.e. certain areas of the tree look affected and others look good and healthy.

Martin,  the Kadota trunk I dug the buggers in post 19 has been sitting out on my back deck unprotected since last November.  I'm in New Jersey.  It didn't get "Chicago cold" this winter, but it has been pretty nasty, with long stretches of days staying in the teens, in the 'oughts, and I think we even had a day or two below zero.  The three buggers I dug out were alive.  (Two still are, but I think I "nudged" the big one a bit to hard with my pocket knife trying to line him up for the pictures.)

Stay tuned for some late-breaking information, which I'll put in a follow-up post.
Jim

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05530.html

http://www.imidaclopridandtrees.com/benefitsoftrees.html