Dogs and drones may be the best hope for Florida avocado trees that are being threatened by a fungus-spreading beetle. The Asian ambrosia beetle is spreading a fungus, laurel wilt, to avocado ...

The Asian ambrosia beetle is attacking avocado trees and spreading a deadly fungus called laurel wilt. "This is, no question, the biggest threat to the commercial avocado industry in Florida.

Scent-discriminating dogs can detect laurel wild disease early on in avocado trees. Pictured: Cobra, a three-year-old Belgian Malinois, sitting to alert her handler a tree is infected.

The fungus, Raffaelea lauricola, causes a rapid deterioration of older avocado trees. “The fungus actually gets into the center of the tree,” Wasielewski said.

The fungus, Raffaelea lauricola, causes a rapid deterioration of older avocado trees. “The fungus actually gets into the center of the tree,” Wasielewski said.

They grow almost entirely in southern Miami-Dade County, but growers have battled the laurel wilt fungus, which can kill redbay and avocado trees, since it arrived in Georgia in 2003.

To determine if the fungus was the cause of the wilt, Fraedrich and his colleagues inoculated redbay trees and containerized seedlings with the Raffaelea fungus; the plants died within 5 to 12 weeks.

If anyone believes they found a tree with the Brown Root Rot disease or its fungus, we ask that you contact the University of Guam Cooperative Extension Services by phone at 735-2072 or by e-mail ...

Dogs and drones may be the best hope for Florida avocado trees that are being threatened by a fungus-spreading beetle. The Asian ambrosia beetle is spreading a fungus, laurel wilt, to avocado trees in ...