The City of Cape Town is offering a free training session about the invasive Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer beetle (PSHB) to all businesses that handle trees and plant material. The intention is to educate the public on how to identify infested trees, and manage and transport beetle infested biomass to prevent the spread of the pest as far as possible. The training session will be hosted at the Alphen Hall in Constantia on Friday evening, 7 June 2024. Residents are also welcome to attend.
Read more below:
To date, trees have been infested in Alphen in Constantia, in Penhill in Eerste River, Newlands, Rondebosch, Mowbray, Claremont, Kenilworth, and Observatory along the Liesbeek River, as well as in the Helderberg area. Amongst these are Boxelders, London Planes, English Oaks, Beef Wood, Weeping Willow, Cape Chestnut, Black Locust, Paperbark and Maples.
‘The PSHB poses a serious threat to Cape Town’s urban forest as infested trees have to be chipped. Importantly, the use of pesticides and fungicides have not proven effective at eradicating PSHB from infected trees. We need the support and collaboration of residents and businesses working with plant material to prevent the spread of the pest. I encourage residents and businesses to attend the City’s free training session,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
The details of the training session are as follows:
- Friday, 7 June 2024, from 18:00 to 20:00 at the Alphen Hall, Constantia Main Road, Constantia
- RSVP by sending an email to Admin.Invasive@capetown.gov.za; please indicate how many people will be attending
Officials from the City’s Invasive Species Unit will host the training session, and provide facts about the beetle, how it spreads, the threat it poses, and the infestations recorded in Cape Town to date.
The PSHB beetle can easily spread across suburbs if extra precaution is not taken. Apart from infected wood, the beetle can also spread through clothing, vehicle crevices, or unclean horticultural equipment.
The City will focus on the protocols applicable to infested trees and biomass, among which:
- How to identify infested trees and what symptoms to look out for
- What to do next, what not to do
- How to handle infested biomass
- How to safely dispose of infested biomass
- How to transport green waste
- How to handle equipment and machinery in a manner that will not spread the pest to other areas
‘There are many formal and informal businesses involved with gardening and landscaping. These are gardeners, nurseries, horticulturists, tree fellers, woodcutters, and many more. We are also encouraging residents to attend, especially if you have trees on your private property,’ said Alderman Andrews.
What to look out for and symptoms of infested trees:
- Branch dieback – cracks on the branch; discoloured leaves; dry and leafless branches; branch break-off revealing webs of galleries filled with black fungus
- Gumming – blobs of goo coming out of the bark; oozing of liquid and gum from the beetle holes
- Entry and exit holes – very small holes on the bark of the tree, the size of a sesame seed (2mm); shotgun-like scars developing around the holes
- Staining – brown or dark stains on the bark of the tree
Important: infested trees must be chipped on site and may not be removed from the property as the removal of the chipped wood will spread the pest to other areas. Do not buy and move fire wood from areas where trees are infested.
How to report PSHB beetle sightings
What to do:
- Chip the tree, place the infested material in refuse bags, seal it and put these in direct sunlight for at least six weeks
- Dump the chips in your compost heap as the heat build-up will kill the beetle
- Burn infected wood chips at an appropriate incineration facilities
- Where chipping is not possible, cut infested wood into smaller pieces that can fit into solarisation plastic bags
- Tightly close and seal the bag with infested material and place it in an area with direct sunlight and leave it to solarise for at least six weeks in summer and up to six months in winter
- Seek assistance from trained and equipped service providers with sound knowledge of PSHB
- Do not move plant/tree material/firewood outside of areas where PSHB has been confirmed to be present to other areas
- Do not transport any form of green waste in open vehicles, cover it with sail covers even if no PSHB has been identified as such green waste.
- Clean tools and equipment used to trim/cut/prune plants
The City will try its best to respond within 10 working days to verify a reported sighting. However, the response time will depend on the number of sightings reported.
Supplied by: City of Cape Town and Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash
 Pest Training in Constantia){kind=link}
 Pest Training in Constantia){kind=link}