Question: My plum tree has large globs of sap near the soil. The tree appears to be dying. It bloomed very heavily and had a good fruit crop this year, but now it looks like it’s dying. What should I do?

Answer: That’s peach tree borer damage. As you can tell, these two related trees share many of the same problems. This one is especially troublesome, since we do not have really effective insecticides to prevent the entry of the pests. The Texas A&M Horticulture Department website will have the most current university recommendations. Unfortunately, many of them may be the same as we had 50 years ago.