Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Present from Lowes, 1 by justdeb

justdeb wrote:
This is a rose of sharon, purchase from lowes 2-3 weeks ago. Upon initial inspection, I didn't see any insects. It was isolated for the first few days but then we planted. Noticed a lot of ants on it the following week, didn't think anything of it. Because of the heavy traffic of cicada wasps in this area, I have not paid as much attention to it as I should have. I noticed some of the buds had what appeared to be eggs on some of the buds earlier in the week, but it seemed that the ants were quickly getting them. I thought they were helping. Today, I noted that they have all but destroyed the tree, and all the buds (more than 30) had these egg things on them. I've tried to research, is this an ant/aphid relationship where the ants are protecting the aphids? If so, how do I get rid of this? Any hope for the tree?? I've looked, don't have this anywhere else in the yard. The tree is on the fence that borders my yard from my neighbor.