Reminder of beetle pest training in Helderberg area for businesses handling trees and plant material
14 March 2023
The City of Cape Town
is offering a free training session about the invasive Polyphagous Shot Hole
Borer beetle (PSHB) to formal and informal businesses which handle trees and
plant material tomorrow, 15 March 2023, in Somerset West.
The intention is to educate private businesses on how to identify infested trees, and manage and transport beetle infested biomass to prevent the spread of the pest as far as possible.
The PSHB poses a serious threat to Cape Town's urban forest as infested trees have to be chipped. To date, sightings of the pest have been reported in Newlands, Rondebosch, Mowbray, Claremont, Kenilworth, and in Observatory along the Liesbeek River, and in the Helderberg area.
Last week, the City hosted a training session in Muizenberg with up to 40 attendees. The next training session is tomorrow, in the Somerset West area. Formal and informal businesses involved with gardening and landscaping are encouraged to attend the session.
The details of the training session are as follows:
- Wednesday, 15 March 2023, from 09:00 to 13:00 at the Helderberg Nature Reserve along Verster Avenue, Somerset West
- RSVP by sending an email to Admin.Invasive@capetown.gov.za; please indicate how many people will be attending and at which venue
Officials from the City's Invasive Species Unit will host the training sessions, and provide attendees with facts about the beetle, how it spreads, the threat it poses, and the infestations recorded in Cape Town to date. The PSHB beetle can easily spread across suburbs if extra precaution is not taken. Apart from infected wood, the beetle can also spread through clothing, vehicle crevices, or unclean horticultural equipment.
The City will educate and inform businesses about the protocols applicable to infested trees and biomass, among which:
- How to identify infested trees and what symptoms to look out for
- What to do next, what not to do
- How to handle infested biomass
- How to safety dispose of infested biomass
- How to transport green waste
- How to handle equipment and machinery in a manner that will not spread the pest to other areas
'There are many formal and informal businesses involved with gardening and landscaping. These are gardeners, nurseries, horticulturists, tree fellers, woodcutters, and many more. I encourage business owners to attend one of the sessions if they can, and to bring along their staff. The training is free of charge, and will empower you to guide residents who need help with infestations, be it to chip the tree and solarise the biomass on site, or to safely transport the infested biomass to an appropriate site where it can be incinerated,' said the City's Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
What to look out for and symptoms of infested trees:
- Branch dieback – cracks on the branch; discoloured leaves; dry and leafless branches; branch break-off revealing webs of galleries filled with black fungus
- Gumming – blobs of goo coming out of the bark; oozing of liquid and gum from the beetle holes
- Entry and exit holes – very small holes on the bark of the tree, the size of a sesame seed (2mm); shotgun-like scars developing around the holes
- Staining – brow or dark stains on the bark of the tree
Important: infested trees must be chipped on site and may not be removed from the property as the removal of the chipped wood will spread the pest to other areas. Do not buy and move fire wood from areas where trees are infested.
How to report PSHB beetle sightings
The City will try its best to respond within 10 working days to verify a reported sighting. However, the response time will depend on the number of sightings reported.
What to do:
- Chip the tree, place the infested material in refuse bags, seal it and put these in direct sunlight for at least six weeks
- Dump the chips in your compost heap as the heat build-up will kill the beetle
- Burn infected wood at appropriate incineration facilities
- Seek assistance from trained and equipped service providers with sound knowledge of PSHB
- Do not move plant/tree material/firewood outside of areas where PSHB has been confirmed to be present to other areas
- Do not transport any form of green waste in open vehicles, cover it with sail covers even if no PSHB has been identified as such green waste.
- Clean tools and equipment used to trim/cut/prune plants
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
