What in the Sam Hill is this crud on my tree?

Well, not my tree. The homeowner's assn.'s tree. But now I have been asked to "fix it", and I have no idea what this creeping crud is. I believe the tree is some kind of flowering crab.

at the roots

On the branches (10' above ground)

on the trunk

Looks like wooly aphids on yes, Crabapple/Malus.

Spray with an insecticide labled for your tree (Malus). Come next early spring (while tree is dormant) - spray entire tree with horticultural oil. Also, spray early morning when it's cool outside or later in the evening. Never spray (insecticides/fungicides/oils) ever when temps reach above 70 F.

Dax

Hey Dax, what about imidacloprid? That's systemic. It would probably be best if applied in late winter though. I don't know about a non-systemic insecticide on a tree this size.

is there anything (disease, lack of proper nutrition, etc) that made this tree vulnerable to the wooly aphids?

Wooly aphids, wooly adelgids.

It doesn't look too severe. If it's minimal, blast them with the hose and let the cool weather put them to rest until next spring.

Doubtful they will explode with growth, this season.

But for future reference, here's a page on how prolific they are (heard of parthenogenesis?).

http://www.mdvaden.com/aphids.shtml

Probably a combination of variables.

Would your HO Assn be in a position to consider replacing that tree?

yes, I have heard of parthenogenesis.

My vote is to ditch the tree. The crud is on every branch from ground to about 10' (and may be higher, that was all I could find). The homeowner who alerted me to it is QUITE fastidious, and would not object

Oops, I was posting when you were posting. Very good point mdvaden. The other thought that was entering my head is that some aphids are becoming resistant to chemicals.

That's why I referred to blasting with the hose (garden) instead of using pesticide.

If that's a crabapple, it may have nice flowers.

The leaf condition and bark condition look like that of a healthy tree.

Unless is has severe suckering, or other real problems, it could seem like a loss to people who enjoy it, if it's removed for a minor momentary bug population.

It could be like getting rid of a rose because it got bugs bad, one year.

I got rid of my roses a bit ago because they were too high maintenance for me. It got to the point where I was frustrated and I'd about had enough. I really don't like fungicides anyway and roses seem to require a myriad of chemicals to look nice. Perhaps I shouldn't have given up so easily.

Blasting the aphids with water was a great suggestion and it should provide immediate relief but do you think it will be enough to forgo greenjay having to treat that tree with a systemic before leaf break next growing season? Another thought I had was that this existing infection might be setting the stage for a secondary fungal infection which might mean yet another chemical.

I get wooly aphids on my european alder and Alnus x spaethii. Trees to large to do anything about them now, and populations are certainly tolerable. I suspect there is some bio-control going on.

Insects are quite large, especially at this time of year in my experience. Although they don't resemble your typical aphid, they will be easy to ID with google image.

OK, well I'm just going to advise the board to have the tree company (contractor) follow up. They can decide of the expense of treating it vs. having it taken down is warranted.

Fungal diseases are much more uncommon here because of the extremely dry air. FOr the same reason, I have no difficulty growing roses, and we have quite a large rose garden on the property. This particular area of the property has had some termite issues, so the board may opt to remove the tree to prevent any chance of dead wood being available for the termites.

thanks for all of your help identify the bugs.

braggart ;)

bragging implies that I am stretching the truth. you can be the judge. This is a "Sterling" rose, that is notorious for having every disease on the planet and some not yet described. It has bloomed 3x for me this year, and there are still 10 blooms on it as we speak.

Not a speck of blackspot, rust, mildew, or other crud on this beauty.

This is a Peace Rose. Ditto on the disease issues. Not a spot on it.

I believed you. The Chicago area is not exactly the greatest for them though. My mother in law absolutely loves roses and she purchased many for me as gifts. I tried, Lord knows I tried. I hit them with everything for a few years to try to address the blackspot, rust, mildew, other crud you refer to, and insects defoliating them and finally gave up. If I could have grown just one rose that looked half as good as either one of yours it would have made her very happy.

I just checked the PlantFiles... no representation that I can find for the roses you posted photos of above and your photos are very good.

Would you be able to share your photos by adding them?

I plan to go through all my pictures and upload whatever is relevant after the fall bulb planting and seed collecting is done. Like December...

You would think with all the sulfur dioxide in the air that Chicago would be PERFECT for roses.... LOL.

Actually I don't think that babying them is the answer. I am meticulous about not letting any leaves or trimmings remain on the ground (they go straight in the trash), and everything is watered on an x-xeric schedule. All roses are in raised beds, with 30% organic matter amendment. No chip or leaf mulch during the growing season, winter protection only. Everything gets full sun from dawn to dusk.

Frankly, any fungus that could survive that regimen would probably grow on the surface of the moon.

I was downright anal about removing the leaves and trimmings. The roses were gifts. My roses weren't in raised beds though. I got to the point where I hated roses and dreaded when my MIL would get all excited telling me she bought me more rose to try. The roses that lasted the longest here were sub zeroes. The high sulfur is a challenge. I'm extremely impressed you knew we dealt with that here. I've resorted to using RO water as opposed to rain water on some species of plants I grow because of that darn sulfur. I have another system that is an RO with an added DI phase to it specifically for several other species. That sulfur is tough.

Your roses are beautiful. Wish I could have had even a little bit of success with them for the sake of my MIL who no longer has her own yard. She does have an area she can plant directly around her patio and she can balcony garden but it's not the same as when she lived in a single family home and had her own garden. She had roses, but they were mostly tea roses.

I lived in Chicago for 5 years, so yes, I know. DId you know that most of the roses grown < 1920 in europe were in an environment so saturated with sulphur dioxide (from burning coal and kerosene) that they had almost no challenge to the roses from black spot and similar fungal diseases? Sulphur is, to this day a major component of most anti-fungal treatments. The effect was that the genetic heritage of tea roses especially has a strong selection FOR vulnerability to fungal problems. Dousing them with sulphur dioxode on a regular basis would probably keep the black spot away...

Nope, didn't know that. Are you suggesting I send my MIL overseas? Just kidding, I've grown rather attached to her.

It wasn't just the black spot for me when I had roses, it was everything. Everthing was out to get any roses she bought for me. I literally ran to the extension office several times looking for Master Gardeners to diagnose my rose disease du jour. Master Gardeners are pretty darn good with roses. I finally fixed my rose problem and went to Hobby Lobby and bought some beautiful silk roses as a joke to plant in the ground. It wasn't until sometime around Christmas that my MIL exclaimed, "Hey, what's going on here". My rose days are over. I'll just live vicariously through your photos.

A systemic seems reasonable (for the tree), I hadn't thought about which chemical/biochemical to use. Maybe pyrethren would work. I'm not much of a sprayer anymore either (or fertilizer, or mulcher, or ???). I just plant and water and try to keep my pruners sterilized.

Good luck with the roses! Of course the (newer-newish) shrub roses are very disease tolerant, but then again, I don't particularly like anything with thorns. Barberry is a thing of the past as far am I'm concerned. I'd plant a dwarf purple ninebark any old day of the week, now.

Dax