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Authorities are in a race against time to stop a tiny beetle from stripping Australia's urban tree canopy, amid fears the pest could enter an "explosive phase" with warmer spring weather. It is highly invasive and attacks a wide range of plant species, with over 500 documented globally to have been infected. Native to South-East Asia, Euwallacea formicatus, the polyphagous shot-hole borer [PSHB], is the size of a sesame seed and when coupled with a Fusarium fungus can kill a tree within two years by tunnelling into the trunk, stems and branches, blocking the flow of water between roots, branches and leaves. It's called a shot-hole borer because the attack on a tree trunk looks like somebody has shot it with a shotgun, with lots of tiny holes. 

 The borer is believed to be contained in a quarantine zone in Perth, having destroyed more than 3,000 trees within it. The pest was first detected in two box elder maple trees in East Fremantle in 2021 and was likely brought in on untreated wood from south-east Asia. By 2024 the beetle was entrenched in metropolitan parks in Perth, including Hyde Park and Victoria Park and as of March 2024 scientists are working hard to eradicate it and prevent its movement to the eastern seaboard of the continent. 

The only way to kill an infestation of the pest is to remove and grind up the affected wood into woodchips, which in most cases requires cutting down entire mature trees. Several large Moreton Bay fig trees have been cut down and a 300-year-old paperbark tree is marked for removal, among many others. It has been known to cause devastating damage to tea (Camellia sinensis) in at least ten countries, including India and Sri Lanka where it is a major economic pest. The beetle is predicted to leave a $28 billion hole in South Africa's economy over the next decade and has also wreaked havoc on avocado, mango and macadamia trees in California and Israel. At the moment there have been no effective chemical treatments found anywhere in the world.

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