the underside of some branches are covered with these little mite-like bugs. any idea what they are? thanks in advance!
by HiAdamRichard
the underside of some branches are covered with these little mite-like bugs. any idea what they are? thanks in advance!
by HiAdamRichard
18 Comments
Aphids. A potassium soap soak every week for 1 month and then once a month during all summer season to prevent them getting into your plant again. You will need the soap itself + water(I use it diluted at 1,5%, so 15ml of soap per liter of water) + a sprayer.
These suck off the plants’ energy and make way for patogens to enter into the tissue, so do it ASAP.
You can buy some lacewings or ladybug larvae at a local garden store and jumpstart the process.
Honestly, just take a hose and put it on the jet setting. Blast them off and wait for the lady bugs to get to work. Everyone freaks out and starts spraying immediately and it will very likely take care of itself if the tree is already healthy.
Looks more like scale insects to me.
That… looks nothing like any aphid I’ve ever seen.
Aphids. I thought it might be scale too but you can see their fat round aphid bodies.
Personally unless this tree was planted this year I would do nothing. Aphids are unlikely to cause lasting damage to a tree. They may sap its vigor by an unnoticeable amount. And soon the predators will emerge to control them. Remove the prey and you won’t have a healthy predator population.
Redbud aphids
Western dull buds
Ticks.
I agree with using the hose. For those of you who want to feed insects, the bug esters will find them in the ground as easy as they find them on your shrub.
It’s scale. It looks similar to magnolia or oak lecanium scale. Don’t know which one it is but I assume you’d treat them all the same
Its a ladybug charcuterie board
My redbud had the leaves eaten by redhumped caterpillars. They stripped the tree. When the leaves grew back, a new round of worms hatched. Fortunately, the birds liked them.
Armored scale. Dug into bark. Pick off , oil spray. They will kill the branch.
Baby birds cannot grow up without soft-bodied insects for their parents to feed them, so do absolutely nothing and be happy to be a part of the web of life.
We had a disgustingly terrible spring with aphids, maybe two years back. I kind of just sprayed them off whatever I could, put some ladybugs on my roses and eventually they just went away. There are cycles to things, sometimes the cycle lands on “everything is lumpy and leaking dew because it’s all covered in aphids.”
I had aphids on my fruit trees the first year after planting. I would spray with insecticidal soap in the evenings for a week to fix it. The following year the lady birds started laying eggs on the leaves and I haven’t had to worry since.
Bugs.