What kind of beetle would attack junipers, plums, willows and pears?
Mine are all dying. B.H., Alvarado. Answer: This won’t be easy. There is no one insect or disease that attacks those four unrelated plants. Willows succumb to cotton root rot and cottonwood borers. Pears suffer from cotton root rot and fire blight. Plums struggle with peach tree borers and bacterial stem canker, and junipers have twig blight and red spider mites. All could have been hurt by drought several years ago and even last year. I do see the holes in the trunks of your juniper. Those appear to be borer holes, but borers aren’t all that common. They may have invaded after the branches were killed by twig blight. I’ve seen a good bit of it in the past 6 or 8 months. In fact, several other questions dealing with it were e-mailed to e-gardens this month alone. You probably ought to have it confirmed through the Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab at Texas A&M. The willow tree trunk looks like it’s been stripped by some type of animal, rodent or otherwise. I’m sorry I can’t get closer with
