By Galest
Hungary 
This is my second problem that I hope someone can help with. I noticed the other day alot of the new shoots on my Williams pear had started to wilt and almost everyone was about 4 inches from the tip. I picked all the shoots off as some leaves had turned black and inside where the sides of the leaf tip were stuck together there was a brown beetle. Others had some of the leaves on the wilted part all wrapped up into what looked like a cigar with no beetle. At first I though it was just a pest of the Pear tree but today I notice the same thing on a purple ornamental cherry tree but this time only a couple of the shoots were wilting and no damage to the leaves.
29 Apr, 2014
Answers
Hello and thanks for yr reply. Ive checked all the stems and branches and apart from ants which virtually everything thats grown here has them theres nothing and the stems are clean and definatly no scale insects. The beetle was inside the black part of the leaf where it was stuck together and when I opened it up it just ran out. Its plain brown pear shaped in that its body is oval tapering towards the head and the head is small, the whole thing is prob about 1/2 long. No other colours just plain brown. I did catch 2 but it was virtually impossible to take a pic as they ran off. Ive taken another pic of the leaf as its the same the bottom half is black but no insect and the shoot of another tree thats gone the same way but no black leaves.
4 May, 2014
Well I'm relieved it was just plain brown - there are several possibles for this shepherds crook type drooping on your tree, and one of those was Asian Longhorn Beetle, but that's not what you're describing.
Two other causes are possible - fireblight (affects any tree/shrub in the Rosaceae family, so that would include both the ornamental cherry and the pear) or phytophthera infection, particularly at the root. It may be that the beetles are purely coincidental, but I am not sure what beetle pests you suffer with over there, so a bit of local research on your part might reveal what they are. There may be some kind of beetle that's a borer, and that's made small holes in the woody parts somewhere - that could cause this type of drooping (that's what Asian longhorn beetle does...)
As regards fireblight and phytopthera, it looks like you'll have to wait and see what happens next - there is no real immediate treatment for either of these infections.
5 May, 2014
Ok and thanks. I was looking at the tree yesterday and apart from all missing growing tips it looks perfectly healthy. The leaves are green and the pears are growing so as you say i ll just have to wait and see what happens next - hopefully nothing.
10 May, 2014
Yep, fingers crossed...
10 May, 2014
Can you check the stems below where they're wilting and lower down - you're looking for any signs of scale insect or any other invaders other than the ones you've found already, I mean ones actually on the stems and branches. Or any holes which have been bored into the trunk or larger branches.... that image you show in the second picture is slightly blurry, but it looks more like a pupae or larvae than a beetle. What did the beetle look like? Did it have white parts to it, a stripey effect?
30 Apr, 2014