Chinese Elms And Scale Insects

Thomas_J.

I'm posting this mainly for the beginners who might have a few ch. elms in their collection. You've probably heard of others mention scale insects from time to time but have probably never seen them. Here's a pic of one type. These buggers really like to go after the ch. elms and the Tx. Cedar Elm. What they do is suck the branches. Therse are the easy ones to see if you spend a few minutes and really look your trees over. These usually start their mischief in the Spring, but be looking for them throughout the growing season. I should also mention that they don't look as big as in this picture. Hope this helps.

Attached Images

scale iii.jpg (32.5 KB, 188 views)

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Thomas J.

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bonsaial1

If your elms are easy to pick up, look at the undersides of the foliage and twigs. If you see hundreds of little white specks all over the leaves and twigs, you have the other scale insect. They love elms too. A jet blast of water will take the white scale off, but the brown ones like in Thomas' picture will have to be picked till dead or taken care of with chemicals.

They really can do some damage. I had the larger brown ones like in the pic last year on my elm forest and they set it back spring growth wise about 6 weeks. It will heal and look good as new, but why take the chance. Check for them now!

Al

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Adam_MA

Thomas, Al

Thanks for the picture and the advice. I am fortunate enough that I have not had my trees attacked by nasty varmints like this. Seeing pictures and getting advice like this is a real wakeup call. I will be looking over my trees today.

Thanks
Adam

Thomas_J.

I'm pretty sure this is what Al is referring to. To me these are the worst ones for beginners because unless they know exactly what to look for they could lose not only branches but trees because these things spread so fast and do so much damage. I've had them on both Tridents and Elms. The way to find them is to wet the trunk and branches really good and they will stick out like a sore thumb as you can see here. They don't look anything like an insect at all but believe me they will cause big problems.

Attached Images

zscaleii.jpg (44.5 KB, 121 views)

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Thomas J.

D3rutat

i had the same problem with scale on my jade and since it's a tropical it was really hard removing the'se bugs due to really fragile leaves.Now i am dealing with mealy bugs on my Carmonas which seem to be a constant pain in the @ss

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