I assume that precision genetic alterations and/or protein manipulations will be the way to eradicate most diseases in the future, though it is unlikely to help in the critical next 10 - 50 years for these trees. Very promising.
The radiation method seems tough but maybe doable... these...
In the areas hit heaviest, the first point of infestation, which occurred about 10 years ago, mortality is 95%. So maybe 5% are resistant trees, though perhaps they are simply getting more water than most and are just taking longer to die. In the gold spotted oak borer's natural habitat of New...
Yes!
Yes locating them would be a problem. Birds do it, but I’m not sure we know how. Maybe it could be done with some kind of X-ray, radar or thermal imaging. All of which seem time consuming and require expensive hardware.
The gsb has no natural enemies in the area except woodpeckers, and they don’t do enough. Gsb is native to New Mexico
Yes I’m familiar with all the pesticide methods for treating gsob including tree injections, spraying and soil treatments.
There is no balance, all the trees will die if left...
Thanks for your reply. This particular worm is called the gold spotted oak borer, and mortality in all infested red oak varieties is 95% (yes that’s right all the trees are dying) . Drought seems to affect how long it takes the tree to die, but doesn’t prevent it from doing so. Pretty sad. So at...
Elsewhere there are discussions about the feasibility of killing bugs with ultrasound. All of those discussions consider a situation, presumably, where the bugs are in the air. That seems a tricky problem, but perhaps not the one I wish to discuss.
The Problem: So in California we have this...