When we lived in South Carolina, we had lot’s of pines in our front yard. During the quiet morning hours you could hear a constant scrubbing sound coming from them and piles of sawdust all around. We tried everything to kill them, but to no avail. There is a new systemic from bayer that we are using on our black locusts, persimmons, and pines here in Wisconsin. It’s expensive! About $10 per tree per year. We have Borer beetles in some of the locusts and we should know if it works this spring.
I used to work at a hardware store and was slightly taken off balance when I saw my first Bayer insecticide.
Why?
Bayer Laboratory was part of IG Farben a 3rd Reich company that developed products for the Nazi War machine, including Zyklon-B used in the gas chambers.
Kinda creepy to me, knowing they're still at it, only insects are the new enemy.
I’ve used the Bayer product on my Weeping Willow in our back yard to protect from the beetles that took our neighbors Willow. It’s pretty expensive, but this tree was planted the day that someone dear to us was lost, so in this instance the price isn’t a consideration. Thus far, over three years, it’s worked beautifully. What was once a skinny twig that fit into my SUV 3 years ago, is now thicker than my thigh and 20”x20”.