Mealy bug infestations on Crepe Myrtles
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Anonymous
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I live in a neighborhood of NW DC where there seems to be an ongoing heavy infestation of mealy bugs on Crepe Myrtle trees. The trees are full of them.. Branches are literally dotted in white 😩
I have a small native garden in the back of my townhouse. Part of it is under one of these trees, which belongs to my neighbor. They have been trying to control the problem in various ways since early June, but t it didn’t work so far… My garden is now heavily infested and most of the leaves are now covered by black fungus due to the sticky substance secreted by the bugs.. Spraying the plants with water and soap works to kill the insects, but then more fall from the tree.. I am at a loss about what to do and feeling discouraged. My Crepe Myrtle in the front of the house is also heavily infested but I don’t have a garden I love there, just some generic shrubs that seem to be holding up well so far. On the other hand, most of my natives in the back garden are affected, including grasses.. Do you have any advice? Is there any company or product that can help to deal with this problem? TIA! |
Anonymous
| They’re not mealy bugs. It’s crepe myrtle bark scale. It’s a multi step treatment. |
Anonymous
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https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/crapemyrtle-bark-scale/
Holy Moly. This is a new invasive pest. |
Anonymous
| So this is come to NW DC? |
Anonymous
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Interesting. I will double check tomorrow. But the bugs look like in the image below, are mobile and secrete a sticky substance.
https://greenmethods.com/images/bbug/scales2.jpg (From the web page https://greenmethods.com/scale-mealybugs/) |
Anonymous
| We removed 4 crepe myrtle trees last year after consulting an arborist. Treatment was going to be expensive. No guarantee it would work. Infestation likely to return at some point. The bees and flies the sap attracted were unbearable. |
Anonymous
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you can try a systemic approach
acephate made into a paintable slurry and then painted in a large band around the trunk. crepe myrtle bark is thin enough to allow translocation. or you can do a soil drench with an imidacloprid. Which will move the insecticide from the roots up to the leaves. down side to both of these approaches is that it will take some time, and it wont do anything for the sooty mold that is likely present though. good luck |
Anonymous
| It appears that my two mature crepe myrtles have this new bark scale infestation. An arborist is coming out to take a look and advise treatment - I’m just hoping we can save the trees. We are in Arlington and the scheduler said they are getting calls from all over Arlington, Alexandria, and Annandale so FYI if you live in those areas. |
Anonymous
| Darn, mine has it too. |
Anonymous
| Our giant crepe had those crepe bugs too. I hosed them off and haven’t seen them anymore, but didn’t have a ton. I’ve seen them on many neighbors trees too. So far they haven’t caused any damage to ours, but I saw one tree that looked like it had hundreds of them. Sad when these invasive critters do so much damage and no natural predators or resistance to them. There are probably hundreds or thousands of crepe Myrtle in our neighborhood. |
Anonymous
Let us know what the arborists says please |
Anonymous
I will. They can’t come until next week but I will update after the visit for sure. |
Anonymous
| Spray with aphid pesticide |
Anonymous
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PP here who had the arborist come take a look -- the infestation isn't too terrible yet. There is a treatment we can do in the coming month that will help for next year and we don't have to take down the trees.
He mentioned that along with the scale comes aphids, so if you have scale then you probably also have aphids and what looks like a black, sooty mold. If you see white spots on crepe myrtles, definitely call an arborist to come take a look. You can apply an insecticide drench to the soil, too, which will help. |