Twig girdler

Twig girdlers are typical longhorned beetles that are 1/2 to 5/8 inch long. The body is cylindrical and generally grayish brown with a broad, ashy-gray band across the middle of the wing covers.

The eggs are white, elongate oval, and about 3/32 inch in length. The larvae are whitish, cylindrical, legless grubs that reach 5/8 to 1 inch long. The pupae are white at first with short, dark spines on the top sides of the abdominal segments.
It is a pest of pecan and hickory, and to a lesser extent several other hardwood trees. The adult beetles girdle twigs and small branches causing the injured portions to break away or hang loosely on the tree. It is not uncommon to see the ground under infested trees almost covered with twigs that have been cut off. Girdling affects the beauty and aesthetic quality of ornamental plantings. With pecans, the fruiting twigs of heavily infested trees are often reduced, resulting in lower nut yields the following year or years. This type of injury causes the development of many offshoots that adversely affect the symmetry of the tree. Pecan nurseries located close to heavily infested wood lots occasionally suffer considerable loss from girdled seedlings. Repeated girdling of terminals causes forks, crooks, and other stem deformities in young timber plantations as well as in natural reproduction.