- Author: Loren Nelson
Scientists fight to save iconic UC Irvine trees from invasive beetle
However, many of these plants are under attack from an invasive beetle that's been spreading across Southern California.
"We're very concerned," said Richard Demerjian, the school's landscape architect and Director of the Office of Environmental Planning and Sustainability.
All together there are around 30,000 to 40,000 trees on campus and Demerjian thinks this pest could wipe out hundreds and hundreds of them.
The culprit is the polyphagous shot hole borer, a beetle smaller than a sesame seed that eats its way into bark, bringing a tree-killing fungus called Fusarium euwallacea with it.
(Female polyphagous shot hole borer. Photo by Gevork Arakelian, LA County Agricultural Commissioner.)
"They actually farm that fungus as a food source," said Akif Eskalen, a plant pathologist at University of California, Riverside.
As the fungus spreads it damages the tissue trees use to move water from the roots, slowly killing it. Some plants survive years with this condition, others die after only one year.
This isn't just a college problem either.
Eskalen thinks the beetle came to California three years in some infested packing material from Southeast Asia.
The beetles can fly from plant to plant and have no natural predators here, so they were able to spread quickly through San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
John Kabashima, a plant expert with the UC Co-operative Extension said that there have been over 1,500 documented cases of infected trees in Orange County parks alone.
Across all of Southern California, he estimates there could be hundreds of thousands of sick trees.
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