“Alert” in Alimos for wood-eating mulberry beetle – Rapid increase in its population

The Municipality of Alimos announced the appearance of the wood-eating mulberry insect and is proceeding with the appropriate actions to deal with it. It is a beetle, relatively new to Greece, which belongs to the insect fauna of East Asia and attacks mulberry trees.

Its common name is “mulberry weevil” and it has the characteristic of rapidly increasing its population.

Its larvae create holes and tunnels in the trunk, resulting in the decay of the tree, the necrosis of its parts or even the necrosis of the whole tree.

As the mayor Andreas Kondylis mentioned in his post on his personal account on social media, the Green Service is already in cooperation with the Agricultural University of Athens and the Benakeio Phytopathological Institute and in consultation with these bodies has already taken the first measures to avoid of the spread of the wood-eating insect, with a view to ensuring public health and protecting the environment. However, research into dealing with the insect is still in its infancy and biological methods are being explored.

In every mulberry tree in the city that is found to be infected, a special crew of arborists prunes and cuts off the affected parts of the tree and the cuts are covered with mastic inoculation to smear the cut surface.

The municipal authority announced that the heavily damaged trees will be cut, chopped and removed immediately, while promising to replace them by planting new trees.

Finally, there will be consultation and cooperation with neighboring municipalities for the adoption of measures to combat the insect, in the context of its comprehensive treatment.

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