What's happened to my avocado trees- laurel wilt?

[SonnyCrockett]

Three small avocado trees near each other all have small pinholes in the bark and two of the three have white stuff around the hole.  Is it laurel wilt?  One of the trees looked bad - darkened trunk and branches with leaves drooping.  A couple of days later, all the leaves turned brown above the graft and most of the trunk is black.

Let me know what you think. 

[Seanny]

My Reed had white powder around the prune wound. It was just dried sap.

[SonnyCrockett]

Here's what the small Holiday Avocado that collapsed looks like.

[OCchris1]

I had a Cara Cara Orange tree that had powdery scale...looked similar to your problem. The two small potted trees I had collapsed as a result. Good luck! Chris

[Tropicalgrower89]

I see a tiny hole in the area of that dry sap. Looks like it was drilled by some sort of a borer. In that case, it could very well be Laurel Wilt.  Hopefully not, but it is a possibility.

[SonnyCrockett]

I see a tiny hole in the area of that dry sap. Looks like it was drilled by some sort of a borer. In that case, it could very well be Laurel Wilt.  Hopefully not, but it is a possibility.

Yeah.  There are a couple of spots like that in the pictures.  Just looking at the tree now and noticed another two spots with frass coming out, so there are some active borers on the tree.  Just not sure if they are Ambrosia beetles spreading Laurel Wilt. 

Apparently Laurel wilt was introduced to the US near this part of South Carolina, so I'm assuming the worst.  But I didn't know if I was over-looking something.  I don't have a lot of experience with avos. 

[SonnyCrockett]

On my Sir Prize avocado that has started to look sick.  Notice the hole through the center of the branch.

[OCchris1]

Upon looking up laurel wilt, it does appear to resemble the images I viewed. That sucks. Best of luck Sonny. Chris

[FruitFreak]

The beetle is the vector.  Remove all portion of plant material where the fungal infection has spread.  You may end up just topping the tree.  If you catch it early enough you can get away with just removing affected branches.  Do this asap!  This is part of regular avo maintenance now in collier county swfl.  Also discard infected material in trash or burn.

[Tropicalgrower89]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DSavYJlkOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQinaXOoARY

According to the videos above, you have to get rid of the entire tree. Throw it in the trash or burn it and don't plant another avocado tree in that spot since the roots could very well be infected. If you remove the whole tree, along with the root ball, then you can probably plant another avocado tree in its place.