Monthly Tip

After deciduous fruit trees have dropped their leaves, paint tree trunks with white latex paint diluted 1:1 with water to prevent sunburn. Preventing sunburn helps trees resist invasion by shot hole borers, which are tiny beetles that boreholes and lay eggs in the cambium layer of the tree. When the eggs hatch, young larvae feed and excavate tunnel galleries in the wood. For more information about identification and control see UC Pest Note on Shothole Borer.