Juniper Pest Identification

[coltranem]

I saw these little ball shaped brown/black insects crawling on my Juniper's Shari. Any guesses?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Could be juniper bark beetles. I found some inside my live twigs this year (the twig makes a hooky bend when they start eating it from the inside) and last year I had serious issues with them on juniper wood, they basically produced a shari as big as my hand in a single season.

 

[leatherback]

they basically produced a shari as big as my hand in a single season.

Nooo!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Nooo!

Sorry, I lied. It's not as big as my hand, more the size of a clenched fist. I'm not happy with it either. I noticed some patches of the bark not drying like the rest did, so I investigated it. A single beetle (or larvae) produced a patch of roughly 10x12 cm.
I found a couple more larvae in another juniper when I was cleaning the bark.

I was unable to ID them, but I remember they resembled a chinese/japanese juniper bark beetle that are invasive to Europe.

 

[coltranem]

I am cleaning the bark tomorrow but they look much rounder than the Beatles mentioned.

 

[DonovanC]

I am cleaning the bark tomorrow but they look much rounder than the Beatles mentioned.

I agree, the Beatles were all fairly slim. Paul’s a big round in the face, bit he’s still a slim fellow.

Good luck with the beetles, mate! Keep us posted!