Blanket of eggs on Ginkgo leaf. Good or bad?

Spotted these yesterday and wondering if I should panic or relax. Any ideas what they are???

Might be as well to scrape them off, with there being so many.

Resin

That is a cool picture...but ewww, gross thoughts of what might come out.

Are there any safe pesticides to use on ginkgo leaves?

Elizabeth

dybbuk - If you haven't already scraped them off - try posting on the Butterfly forum - I'd bet somebody there might have a clue as to whether they are "friend or foe". Samantha

Cool

The folks at the Garden Pest and Diseases forum would probably love a chance to solve this mystery--send it on to them. From the neatness and obvious effort involved in getting those little eggs lined up just so--it seems to me that whatever insect is responsible for this display would appreciate hearing from you about where you would prefer she lay her eggs.

Gosh they're beautiful. Until they hatch and start chomping on something.

I think (maybe) they are stinkbug or shieldbug egg masses, neither of which are beneficial insects, but ... can you take the leaf off and keep it in a jar until they hatch? I would hate to be responsible for the death of anything beneficial!

From this link I learned that most butterfly species lay their eggs one to a leaf. So HoosierGreen probably is closer to identifying them as something not so good. But still, I kind of admire the precision labor.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/components/DG6711b.html

Whatever they are you're going to have lot of them! Have you looked at them with a 10X loop?

Hmm... I've seen this post somewhere else and posted to it there too.

Most butterfly species lay their eggs singly, not necessarily one to a leaf, but not en mass as seen here. But many moths do lay their eggs in vast numbers, just like this.

Stinkbug eggs are not as numerous, and have a little indentation that looks like a cap - some have little fringes.

As I said on the other post, I believe these are Lepidopteran - moth eggs - and advised dybbuk to remove these leaves and place in a jar until we can be certain what they are. They don't look beneficial to me. Beautiful, but...

Do you have Japanese beetles in your area? Could be JB if you do. Just a guess.
Mike

I guess The University of Minnesota Extension is in need of a good lepidopterist! They really do state that most butterflys lay their eggs singly. Nevertheless the workmanship of even an ugly destructive pest, if that's what it turns out to be, is something to marvel at.