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The pitted ambrosia beetle (Corthylus punctatissimus) is about 1/8 inch long, dark reddish brown, and marked with several tiny pits. Its small white larvae eat galleries in woody azaleas or rhododendron atems, causing them to wilt, die and break. They usually infect stems near the ground. Adults overwinter in the chambers created by the larvae and emerge to feed on fungi and mulch.
Pick pitted ambrosia beetles off your shrubs and introduce beneficial nematodes to the soil. For long-term control, apply milky spore disease (Bacillus papilliae) to the soil. When spring arrives, carefully cultivate the soil around the azaleas and rhododendrons, without hurting the roots, to expose the beetle eggs, larvae, and pupae to the weather and to predator birds.
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