Lab Notes: The tiny beetle ravaging Perth's trees

It's the size of a sesame seed, but it could cause unfathomable destruction to Australia's forests and urban canopy.

A beetle called the polyphagous shot-hole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus) is silently spreading through Perth and its surrounds, forcing councils to chop and chip hundreds of trees — even century-old Moreton Bay figs.

So how does the tiny pest cause such massive problems?