twig borer

American  

noun

1. any of several beetles, beetle larvae, or moth larvae that bore into the twigs of plants.

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Example Sentences

Everywhere she looks, she sees pin-sized holes left by a twig borer, an invasive insect that thrives in warm, dry weather and can suck the life out of a healthy coffee tree.

From National Geographic

There are more than forty-five hundred species of twirler moth around the world, many of them agricultural pests—the conifer needleminer, the peach twig borer, the red-necked peanutworm moth, the pink-washed aristotelia.

From The New Yorker

My trees are troubled with canker-worm, root aphis, bag-worm, flathead borer, roundhead borer, woolly aphis, twig borer, fall web-worm, leaf-roller, leaf-crumpler, and others.

From Project Gutenberg