Lilac bush

[drobertson]

What causes the lilac to die? there are either bugs or some other form of disease.  I cut of the dead limbs and there are holes. No real signs of bugs, but I suspect bugs all the same.

[Roxie]

Eastern European Hornets love lilacs.  They eat the bark off the limbs in a circular (or ring) pattern.  In flight, they look like red yellow jackets on steroids.  They also fly at night and are attracted to lights. 

They were on my lilacs, but they didn't kill it, because I ripped it out to get rid of them after they killed my birch tree. 

[Al_Smith]

If those are the same thing as a cicada killer wasp that is one weird insect .They almost act like they have intellegence .They will stand off in flight like a helocopter and watch you about 6 feet away ,they don't attack just watch .

They gave me the spooks .Danged things are about 2 inchs long .What they were after was the cicada larva they knew was inside a bunch of firewood I was splitting from a hollowed out tree .Once the threw the rotted wood in a pile they got what they were after and that's the last I saw of them .

[Roxie]

They are two different species, but are often mistaken for each other, because of the size and flight pattern. 

Eastern European Hornets are attracted to fruit, grass hoppers, and lilac and birch trees, among others.