Our hard shell almond tree died rather suddenly. It was about 8 years old and more than 20' high. We live in a zone 8+ on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We had pruned the tree back in the fall. This spring it started to leaf out a bit and then suddenly died. Examing the trunk we found a multitude of very small holes. Some sort of bark beetle I suppose. My concern is that other trees may be affected by this bug. Could anyone tell me what type of insect could cause this and what other types of trees could be affected? We have pears, peaches, cherries, walnuts and others. Thanks for your help if you have any suggestions!
Sounds like Cherry Bark Tortrix. Have not heard of this in almond trees but have heard it may appear in various rose family trees and shrubs. I cut down an Apricot here on Camano Island this year that was riddled with damage. Am concerned what effects this new pest may have on already locally uncommon but exquisite Japanese Apricot trees. If you took most of the new wood off trying to radically shrink the entire tree all in one go (non-selective pruning), that probably didn't help either. If nothing else you may have removed most of the bearing wood, so that you would have had to wait for replacement growth to attain bearing condition.
"The characteristic frass tube will be obvious due to its orange color. " is one reference I found for these creatures. Unfortunately there were no obvious frass tubes. Just very small holes in the bark. Thank you Ron B for your suggestion. Apparently all kinds of trees, including almond can be affected by Tortrix.