Oak borers??

[Larry]

Anybody have an idea what kind of worm this is?  I think it is an exit hole.  Tree is a small pinoak in north Missouri.





Their is a bug at the top but it is pretty hard to see in the picture.

[SwampDonkey]

Larry:

Is there only one exit hole? or does the tree have borings in circumference of the tree bole? I'm not familiar with oak borers, but we do have maple borers up here. I'll do a search.

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like the work of the long horn beetle Larry. Have a look at the exit hole on this page and info posted there.

http://www.fhpr8.fs.fed.us/idotis/insects/whtoakbr.html

As for your beetle in your pic I would say its a non-boring type. It appears to be eating the sugary sap like the fly is. Its the grubs that make the holes.

cheers

[Phorester]

The beetle in the pic is definitely not the one what made the hole.

I think Swampdonkey nailed it.

[Phorester]

Whoa!! I see I got me a pine tree under my name now.

Does this come with any monetary reward????

[Tom]

The more you post the bigger the phorest. The bigger the phorest the more of the forum opens up.  It's fun.

[rebocardo]

Okay, I have seen those oak borers, I thought they were the same things as the pine borers, but, now I know they are different. When I see those adults it will be squish time.

From that site :

> "Removing vines, which are good egg laying sites"

I keep telling people that keeping the vines off the tree is the best thing to keeping all their trees healthy, especially the red and white oaks.

[SwampDonkey]

Rebo:

Ya never know what those vinaceous shrubs will host for pests. I don't think Virginia creeper has hurt our woods much, but some folks have planted that here and it grows wild climbing maple trees. Its not that common the see. I've only seen a couple places near old abandoned homesteads. Its not a native vine here. We have climatis, wild grape and wild cucumber as native vines, they usually grow amongst the alders in old fields or marsh or along stream banks.

[rebocardo]

The wild grape, that I have seen, seems to die when it hits about 20 feet high on the white oaks. I do not know what it is called, seems like a wild rose, but, it wrecks all the trees local to me in Atlanta GA along with that kudzu stuff.