A branch just fell off the tree and when I looked at it there was a bug/larva in the core of the branch what can I do to save the tree, I'm afraid it might be one of those boring beetles I've heard about
Mandy

Can you take it to a good nursery or an arborist? The branch that fell off, I mean.

The bad news is that, if the tree has borers, likely they will be the final insult which kills the tree. Once the borers are in the wood, nothing can be done.

And the borers came because the tree was stressed.

That stress often occurs with young trees because they weren't given sufficient water during the first 3 years to establish a sturdy root system.

You might want to cut your losses and start over with a fresh new tree.

and planting too deep which is a very common mistake...

I have a Burr oak tree that has holes in it that are in a pattern of straight lines and kinda a square pattern too. It's really odd, it's not just random holes. The tree was sown in place as an acorn, so, not too deeply planted. There's no liquid coming from the holes either.

The tree looks fine otherwise. We've had a drought, but the tree has been established in the spot it's in for about 6-7 years, maybe even 8. And, it's got that taproot in tact, which should help it find more moisture.

Sorry to get on someone else's thread, but, I was reading this about borers, so, I figured I'd post here.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to post a picture. But, the holes are sorta in a row in some places. Some are randomly spaced. I'm just trying to give you a picture in your head how it looks. There's no sap, but maybe in the spring there had been?

A websearch of pictures of sapsucker damage does look alot like what I see. But, some pics show the holes being sorta oval, but some pics show round holes. The holes on my oak are round.

If it's sapsuckers, what if anything should I do? Would the sapsucker choose a tree because it's stressed? We've had a drought here, but, if it fed in spring, the tree wouldn't be stressed yet, the drought came later. And, it would likely be the least stressed tree in my yard, it was sown in place, not moved. And, Burr oaks can have a taproot of as much as 7 feet down. Or so the internet says.

And it's not looking stressed, like wilting leaves or anything like that. It's about 7-8 years old I think.

I can't help you on sapsucker info. We don't have them here. I only know of them from posts on this site. You could Google for further info. If you have pictures on your phone or computer you can post them by clicking the photo icon below the comments box.

I will just say that the holes look more like borer beetles, round. I tried to post a picture from a websearch that looks exactly like my tree's trunk, but, I forget how. I did copy then paste. But I missed something. But, it looks exactly like the pic for borer beetle damage.

Sorry I'm not much help. I'll just keep an eye on it. Maybe I should use a treatment like Bayer's in case. It shouldn't hurt anything. I'll read the label first though. Thanks for the reply.

I looked up info on borers, and it says if there's frass or sawdust also sap or some oozzy stuff. My tree has neither, but the borers would have left by now maybe. So, it could be borers or sapsuckers. But trees that are more commonly affected by borers seem to be peaches and other fruit trees. Then ash and others I forget that I saw when I looked it up. My Burr oak is not supposed to be suseptible to borers.

To post a picture from a web search you need to save the picture on your device first and then use the photo icon to post the picture. Or copy the link into your post so we can open it. But if you have a mobile phone you can take your own picture.

I took a pic with my phone, I'm going to print out a pic at a store and send it snail mail to Hu here on gardenweb. I already wanted to show him a pic of something else. I am really bad with computer stuff. Unless I do it often, I forget how to do things like that. I used to get help with it, but people get angry when you ask for help over and over. Thanks anyway, the damage looks just like borers, and some sapsucker holes look like it too. I'll just try and get HU to give me his opinion too. Thanks floral.