Harmful tree insects and plant health care
Damaging insects and diseases can be anticipated either because they have been previously identified as harmful or because of the environmental conditions. TREE MEDIC uses preventative treatments that are best applied before damage to your trees and shrubs occur. Problem pests common pests in the Western NY region are as follows:
Aphids
Leaf feeding aphids are very damaging and large populations cause leaf changes and stunting of the sh
oots. Also, aphids produce large quantities of a sticky exudation known as honeydew and this often turns black with the growth of a sooty mold fungus. Some aphid species inject a toxin into plants, which further distorts growth. Around western New York we find the highest abundant of aphids in our locust trees.
Gypsy Moth
The gypsy moth caterpillar is one of the most notorious pests of hardwood trees in the Eastern United States. Since the 198
0’s, the gypsy moth has defoliated close to a million or more forested acres each year. In 1981, a record 12.9 million acres were defoliated and this is an area larger than Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut combined.
Japanese Beetles
Adult Japanese beetles feed on broad-leaved trees and plants and can cause significant 
damage as they defoliate the plants. The grubs will also feed on a wide variety of plant roots, including ornamental trees and shrubs, garden and truck crops, and turf grasses. We usually find these feeding on linden and birch trees especially.
Scale
Scale is a problem with many trees. These insects suck sap from plants and begin robbing them of their
essential nutrients. They develop a hardened shell to protect them after they latch on to the newly devolved tree branches of certain trees, especially magnolia trees.
Scale may be one of the more difficult insects to control in our area and is always best to be treated for as early as possible before their hardened armor takes form later in the growing season. Furthermore, scale is best prevented before they infest your landscape.
Bronze Birch Borer
Bronze birch borer is a serious secondary tree insect of white, paper, and cut-leaf weeping birches. This native flat headed borer will attack yellow, gray, and other species of birch.
It has also been reported on beech. Bronze birch borer adults are slender, dark, iridescent, often greenish-bronze, beetles, 7-12 mm long . Fully grown larva is slightly longer than 12 mm, yet very slender, and has a flattened, enlarged area behind its head.
This image to the left is a picture of a birch tree infected with the borer and the tree generally dies from the top down do to the halt of nutrients to the harder parts of the tree first.
Gall
Galls are abnormal plant growth or swellings comprised of plant tissue and they are usually found on foliage or twigs. These unusual deformities are caused by plant growth-regulating chemicals or stimuli produced by an insect or other arthropod pest 
species. Chemicals produced by these causal organisms interfere with normal plant cell growth.
Causing leaves to drop prematurely, or distort them so that photosynthesis (the plant’s food-making process) is interrupted, galls generally are aesthetically objectionable to homeowners who find them unattractive and fear that galls will cause damage to the health of their oak trees.
Call TREE MEDIC today if you suspect any harmful insects feeding on your trees!
The earlier you treat the sooner you can save your trees.
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