"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
...
"The Old Bloke" wrote in message

I have often dealt with borers that go in, leave a trail of dust.
But with
whatever these are, there is no visible sign till a major part of
the plant
dies. When I then start lopping off the dead branch, the axial
borehole has
usually got right down into the lower trunk. A single hole can be
4-6 ft
long.

I also recently had a lemon tree looking as sick as it was possible to
be without actually being dead. I finally got sick of trying to
cosset the rotten thing and pulled it out. It was young and small so
I could check it out well when I ripped it up and I found a hole right
at ground level which wasn't visible when in the ground. There was no
other borer hole anywhere to be seen. Could this have been an axial
borer?


Perhaps. But in each of my cases, as I lop further down, I get to a point
where there is no longer a centre hole. So, mine start above ground level.

I have spoken to a couple of nurserymen and they say that they started
seeing this in the last year as the drought worsened. 50mm rain today.
Whoopee!