Since first being reported in 2017, PSHB has travelled throughout South Africa in a few short years.
The female beetles can fly up to a kilometre. However, assistance from wind and especially human intervention such as moving firewood, wood chips, green waste, and nursery stock, further assists the beetle to travel significant distances and most likely contributed to this dispersal all around the country.
Up until now, the PSHB invasion in South Africa largely impacted urban settings and home gardens. Common ornamental hosts to look out for include – English oak, London plane, box elder, beefwood, and white poplar. This precocious beetle also infests invasive trees such as blackwood, black wattle and castor bean. Other favourites are the Erythrina’s, commonly planted around homesteads on farms.
PSHB has also been detected in trees associated with agricultural crops such as avocado, pear, cherry, apple, peach, guava, pecan, and plums. Not all observations were in agricultural settings. If grown near reproductive hosts like some windbreaks on farms, there is a strong possibility of an infestation by PSHB.