Symptoms include red discolouration of young tissue and vascular wilt which leads to shoot and branch dieback (Coutinho et al. 2011; Arriel et al. 2014). Small cankers can develop and are associated with blisters below the young actively growing green bark (Coutinho et al. 2011). Lesions are also present on the leaves and are surrounded by a distinct halo (Coutinho et al. 2011).

The biology and life cycle is poorly understood. In the study by Coutinho et al. (2011) the disease was only observed on young trees (6 months to 2 years). It is suggested that there was a host shift from guava to Eucalyptus (Coutinho et al. 2011). E. psidii can cause death to the tops of trees and hence the tree can form double leaders. The trees also appear to recover rapidly and older trees do not seem to be affected.