The Parks & Gardens Department belonging to Motril Town Hall has begun removing trees from the Plaza de la Tenería as a "preventative measure," after the presence of a pest was detected.

The said square is the one right next to the Municipal Market and the pest concerned is the shot-hole borer (Xylosandrus compactus), which is threatening avocado plantations.

In a natural broad-leafed forest it does not normally cause much damage, but when it infects plantations, it becomes a pest. Major crops across the world where it does serious damage are coffee, tea, avocado and cocoa.

The Councillor who heads this department, Daniel Ortega, explained that infected trees are removed to prevent the plague reaching healthy trees.

When the presence of the tree-borer beetle (or ambrosia beetle) is detected, the Junta de Andalucía is automatically informed, which in turn sends specialists from its Departamento de Sanidad Vegetal. By cutting down infected trees and setting traps on heathy ones, it is hoped that the outbreak can be contained.

A method used on healthy plants in the Plaza de Tenería to prevent them from becoming infected is endotherapy:

Quoting from Wikipedia: Trunk injection or vegetative endotherapy is a method of target-precise application of pesticides or fertilisers into the xylem vascular tissue of a tree with the purpose of protecting the tree from pests, or to inject nutrients to correct for nutrient deficiencies. This method largely relies on harnessing the tree’s vascular system to translocate and distribute the active compounds into the wood, canopy and roots where protection or nutrition is needed.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Tree Borer, Beetle, Ambrosia, Avocado Trees, Plaza De Tenería, Cut Down, Pest, Plague

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