If you’re keeping a list of questions you hope you never have to ask, here’s one: Why are the leaves on my tree curling and sticky?
Ugh. Bugs.
As much as you love your vibrant maple, your shimmering aspen or your elegant elm, bugs might love them even more.
Jump to Section
- Signs of Pest Infestations in Trees
- Emerald Ash Borer Symptoms in Idaho
- Woodpecker Damage vs. Insect Holes
- How Do You Treat a Tree for Pests Without Harming the Tree?
- Tree Recovery After Pest Damage
- Common Tree Diseases in Eastern Idaho
- Your Best Line of Defense: Healthy Trees
- Frequently Asked Questions About Restoring Sick Trees in Idaho Falls
- Keep Your Trees Healthy with Lawn Buddies
They eat them. They suck the juice from the leaves, tunnel into the bark, and while they’re enjoying a meal, they’re slowly killing your tree.
If your tree starts out healthy, it can often bounce back from these rude attacks.
But repeated infestations weaken a tree and can eventually kill it.
Signs of Pest Infestations in Trees
How do you know if your tree has an insect infestation? It might have curled, brown or yellow leaves. Sticky goo or black soot. Holes in the bark. Squiggly trails in the leaves. Little piles of sawdust at the base of the tree.
Let’s learn more about tree pest identification in Idaho Falls.
1. Misshapen, Curling, or Yellowing Leaves
This is often a sign of aphid damage, or feasting by other bugs that suck the nutrient-rich liquids out of leaves, leaving them pale and sickly.
2. Sticky Goo on Leaves
This is another sign that sucking insects have attacked your tree. When these pests suck out the liquid from leaves and twigs, they often excrete a sweet, sticky substance called honeydew.
That name sounds a lot nicer than it actually is. Other insects love this stuff and gather it for food.
3. Sooty Black Mold on Leaves and Branches
Sometimes this honeydew turns into a fungus called sooty mold, causing branches and leaves to appear black.
4. Entry or Exit Holes in Tree Bark
Holes in your tree bark are often signs of boring insects in Idaho trees.
These destructive borers can be really harmful to trees, boring into the trunk, roots, or branches. If you don’t stop their feasting, your tree could die.
When borers lay eggs that hatch, the larvae burrow even more deeply into the wood, blocking off the water-conducting tissues of the tree.
5. Small Mounds of Sawdust at the Tree Base
If you’ve ever asked, “What are the tiny holes in my tree trunk with sawdust?” here’s your answer.
This is another sign of boring insects in Idaho trees. As they drill into the tree, they leave small piles of sawdust behind, like tiny rude carpenters.
6. Squiggly Trails in Your Tree’s Leaves
Say hello to leaf miners, destructive bugs that puncture your tree’s leaves to suck out the juices. Then they lay eggs that hatch into hungry larvae that continue the damage, creating those squiggly tunnels as they munch.
Emerald Ash Borer Symptoms in Idaho
We mentioned borers earlier, but this guy is so destructive, we’re giving him his own section.
This metallic green beetle is responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of ash trees in 30 states, including Idaho. Native to Asia, it likely arrived in the United States hidden in wood packing materials.
The borer’s larvae eat the inner bark of ash trees, making it impossible for the tree to circulate vital water and nutrients.
Infested trees usually die within a few years, but there’s hope if you catch the problem early.
There are signs this bug villain is destroying your ash tree:
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Your ash's leaves might be thin, wilted or yellow.
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Watch for woodpeckers. They love eating the larvae hiding under the bark.
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Look for the beetle’s exit holes in the tree bark, shaped like the letter D.
How to help prevent emerald ash borers?
Don’t move firewood from state to state. The emerald ash borer larvae can travel by hiding in firewood bark. Buy local firewood.
Keep an eye on your trees. If you see any signs or symptoms of an infestation, call experts who can act quickly to control it.
Woodpecker Damage vs. Insect Holes
Speaking of woodpecker holes, how can you tell if holes in your tree are from woodpeckers or insects?
Woodpeckers often leave either tidy rows of holes or ragged clusters of holes. Insects tend to create random, individual holes.
But keep in mind you might have both, as woodpeckers search for insects that might already be eating your tree.
How Do You Treat a Tree for Pests Without Harming the Tree?
You want the damaging insects gone. Is there a way to do it without harming your tree? The poor thing has already been under attack.
Lawn Buddies pros will first identify the type of bugs attacking your tree, then determine the best way to get rid of them.
Pros often use what they call “foliar treatments,” meaning they spray the tree's leaves with insecticide. When insects come in contact with it, they die.
Different insects have specific life cycles and require certain treatments, which is why proper identification by experts is important.
Tree injections are a tool in the arsenal, too.
Tree injections act like vitamin shots for your trees. They treat diseases and insects by delivering treatment directly into the tree trunk, which is quickly taken up by the vascular system and distributed throughout the tree.
Tree Recovery After Pest Damage
Your tree will need some extra care as it recovers from pest damage. Make sure it gets enough water. Prune any dead branches. Keep an eye on it to make sure pests don’t return.
Deep-root fertilization can provide a much-needed nutrient boost when restoring sick trees in Idaho Falls.
Deep-root tree fertilization delivers nutrients directly deep into the soil, rather than spreading them on the surface.
By injecting fertilizer with a high-pressure wand, nutrients can quickly reach the deepest tree roots, feeding your tree from the roots up.
Then, over time, the nutrients make their way to the rest of your tree, making it healthier and more vibrant.
Common Tree Diseases in Eastern Idaho
Bugs aren’t the only stresses your trees face out there. A few common tree diseases can also cause your trees to have wilted leaves and stunted growth.
Marssonina Leaf Spot strikes aspen, poplar and cottonwood trees, causing brown spots with yellow halos that merge into large brown blotches.
Rhizosphaera Needle Cast affects spruce trees, especially Colorado blue spruce, causing their needles to turn yellow, then brown and eventually fall off.
Powdery Mildew causes blotches on the leaves that look like fuzzy white felt.
Fire Blight can kill pear and apple trees. It starts as cankers in the tree’s tissue, lingering dormant over the winter. Then, once the tree blooms in spring, the infection spreads throughout it.
Iron Chlorosis is a nutrient deficiency that often strikes Idaho’s aspen and maple trees. Trees with iron chlorosis have yellowing leaves that never quite get green.
If you have a stressed and suffering tree, you want to fix it as fast as possible.
The same deep root fertilization and tree injections we described earlier are also used to treat tree diseases. Your ailing tree gets an immediate boost.
Here at Lawn Buddies, we often use tree injections to treat fire blight and iron chlorosis.
Your Best Line of Defense: Healthy Trees
A healthy, thriving, well-tended tree can withstand an occasional pest or disease attack.
This means proper watering, fertilizing, mulching and pruning throughout the year.
Pruning should be done in late fall or winter, so there are no open wounds to attract insects.
Any dead or fallen branches should be removed right away.
At Lawn Buddies, we can set you up with a tree care plan that includes preventive care to deter insects before they attack.
If tree pests do strike, early detection is key. We can treat infestations with a combination of insecticide applications on tree leaves and tree injections at the base of the trunk, depending on the pest.
Frequently Asked Questions About Restoring Sick Trees in Idaho Falls
Tree Damage in Idaho Falls takes many forms. Understanding the difference between pest damage and other stressors is key to keeping your treasured trees safe.
Q. Will one pest control treatment fix my tree?
A. It’s unlikely. It will help, but it’s important to get on a regular program to make sure we control the bug, then do the best we can to protect the tree from this happening again. It's much easier to stay on top of protection than to get damaging insects out of your tree.
Q. Is insect control for trees safe?
A. Yes, tree insecticide treatments are considered safe. But as with any landscaping treatment, avoid the treated area until the spray has fully dried.
Q. How long does tree insect control last?
A. This depends on your tree’s exposure to sunlight and moisture, but four weeks is pretty standard. Lawn Buddies technicians space treatments out about 6 weeks apart throughout the season to align with your lawn care treatments.
Q. Do you need tree pest control in Idaho Falls in winter?
A. No, give yourself a season off! Most bugs aren't actively feeding on your trees during Idaho winters. Getting insect control services then would be a waste.
Here in cold Idaho, the pesticides sprayed on leaves would just freeze to your plants.
Systemic insecticides delivered through injections don’t work in winter months here, either. Those tree injections that work by moving the chemicals through your tree’s vascular system can’t do their job because your trees are dormant.
Our last insecticide treatment for trees is done in September if applied to the leaves. Our last systemic treatments, done by injection, happen in October.
Q. How soon in spring can you start tree insect control services?
A. If you want to get a head start on banishing destructive bugs, you can start in early spring with dormant oil.
Also called horticultural oil, dormant oil spray is a highly refined petroleum product used as an insecticide to suffocate insects and insect eggs that have overwintered on trees and shrubs.
Instead of poisoning the bugs, you’re basically smothering them with the oil. The oil kills any lingering insects as well as their eggs, so they won’t hatch in the spring.
Lawn Buddies technicians apply the oil spray in early spring while your trees and shrubs are still dormant.
Keep Your Trees Healthy with Lawn Buddies
The best way to protect your tree from invasive pests is to keep it healthy so it can withstand stress.
But if you notice yellowed, curling leaves, sticky goo or little piles of sawdust, that’s a tree emergency.
At Lawn Buddies, we’re tree experts. We provide professional plant health care in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, and Rexburg as an add-on to our Lawn Care Services in and around Idaho Falls, ID.
That means we have the skills, knowledge, and services to keep your trees healthy and thriving in the first place, and the tools to treat them if voracious bugs do strike.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. Just fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then you can kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.
Image Sources | Emerald Ash Borer
