The race is on to stop a tiny pest from killing Southern California’s native oak trees

It’s less than a half-inch long but it can fell a giant oak tree in no time.

The goldspotted oak borer, GSOB or Agrilus auroguttatus, is a 0.4-inch bullet-shaped beetle with six golden spots on its forewings, and it burrows its way into mature oak trees, cutting off a tree’s water and nutrients and leaving it to shrivel and die in about three years.