Help! Something ate my apple tree from the inside

Hi everyone, my heart is in shambles, something made a horizontal hole in my gorgeous mini golden spur tree and then proceeded to make tunnels up and down the trunk. I've tried to fill it with a sealant to some degree, but I don't know if this can help it at all. The tree is so beautiful and bears lovely apples every single year that are so tasty. I really don't know what to do. Shall I leave it to see if it survives (it's just about to start flowering), or shall I try to save it by cutting it down below the level of the damage (there are only 2 very sma ll branches below the point where I guess the tunnel ends at the bottom end)?
Thanks

 

Really unlucky. It could be an apple borer beetle or another borer. I dont know much about them but maybe look for other diseases, are the roots totally healthy?

If you cut it back far and it still has leaves, it will probably survive, but another borer may just come back. I dont know enough, sorry.

You could try taking cuttings from the upper spurs?

 

It's the Cossus cossus goat moth. The female lays eggs at the base of the tree and the larvae crawl up and bore holes in the trunk. They then continue boring until they emerge as adults 3 or 4 years later at the end of branches. If you catch them early, a flexible but stiff ish wire wriggled up the channel squidges them, but there's no way to get to them otherwise. It's worth encircling any young tree (especially cherries and other fruit trees) with a fine mesh guard 30-40cm in diameter and high enough to reach the first branches.

 

Thank you for replying. Now I understand why I've seen trees painted white with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). Do you think this might help prevent damage to my other fruit trees?

 

I thought that too but apparently that's something else. For prevention you need a physical barrier that stops the moths laying on or near the trunk.

 

Not heard of the goat moth. Creepy!

The lime paint as far as I know is for fungal and other microorganism diseases that overwinter on the bark, eg. its supposed to help with peach leaf curl.

 

Oh, I see, I always thought it's to stop something crawling up. I thought to do it to stop slugs and snails eat my pears, as they did it last year, while the pears were as tiny as thumb nails.

 

So, you basically put a fine net around the base of the tree like a ground cover?

 

You are in a manner, privileged. Goat moths are a relatively rare moth (fortunately!), up to 3" in wing span and 'attractive' in some eyes.

 

Rather a tube of stiff wire or plastic mesh like a tree guard. The moths are quite big so it doesn't need to be very fine mesh, just 10-15cm away from the trunk all round.

 

Unfortunately not rare here in fruit-growing country where it plays havoc not just with fruit trees but several species of ornamental tree too. A real pest!

 

Must admit I'd never heard of goat moth, is it something that might be moving north or something that has always been around in the UK but remains fairly uncommon.

 

I have said this before on other threads/ forums. There are a numer of moth species whose larvae resemble large tough skinned caterpillars. Instead of eating leaves, they eat, stems and roots, they are collectively known as cutworms. We had an Acer that was attacked, I only realised what it was because I found a larval skin, that had been shed, inside the hole it had left in the trunk. The tree has survived but, grows unevenly. I have found larvae with their "heads" inside the root and stem of a collapsed lettuce plant on the plots before.
Not sure you can do much about them.