Under consultation: stakeholder comments open until 20th August 2025. 

Xylosandrus compactus, the black coffee twig borer, is a widely distributed tropical/subtropical ambrosia beetle. This pest causes significant damage to many economically important crops in the tropics such as cocoa, coffee, and various fruit tree species.  

Xylosandrus compactus is native to East Asia but has spread to various parts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, and has recently been expanding its range into Europe, since its introduction to Italy in 2011. This has led to this pest no longer being listed as a non-European Scolytinae. Xylosandrus compactus is absent from the UK and has been intercepted twice, once in 2014 on Mango (Mangifera indica) fruit from Kenya, and in 2016 on bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) plants for planting from Italy.

This PRA concluded that Xylosandrus compactus is unlikely to become established in the majority of the UK, and where establishment is possible, winter temperatures are likely to cause significant mortality. While establishment under protection is possible, procedures to isolate/check plants before entry into protected structures would help mitigate risk of entry into such structures. As X. compactus is considered unlikely to establish in the UK and the potential impacts to the PRA area are rated as small, it does not meet the criteria to be a quarantine pest. Therefore, the UK’s Plant Health Risk Group does not recommend statutory action against this pest following the analysis presented in the PRA.