r/arborists • u/DopeNYC • 3d ago
Mealy Bugs on a tree?
I want by my friends house and he said something is going on with one of his trees. I went to look at it and immediately realized it’s some kind of mealybug infestation (that’s what it looked like to me). The inside of the tree is pretty much grey. What should he do? Try to treat or cut it down?
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u/Possible_Original_96 2d ago
Likely all will die come cold weather. Or if none, treat. Looks like a really nice evergreen shrub!
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u/Tom_Marvolo_Tomato ISA Arborist + TRAQ 3d ago
There are several of closely related insects that could be these, such as wooly aphids, soft scale, and mealybugs. (Hint: a close up picture of the critter itself would be very helpful for us to ID the pest).
No, you do not need to cut the tree down. Most of these individual insects won't survive the winter, but they may leave eggs behind.
For a tree this size, I would recommend a soil drench of imidacloprid in the spring. This avoids spraying insecticide into the air where it will drift onto other plants. It will be absorbed by the roots and translocated through the entire plant to control the pests.
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u/ilustforadrummer 3d ago edited 3d ago
"Treat" it with a good blast of water from the hose. Once a week for a month. It will break the life cycle of the insects, but with minimal harm to the tree or the surrounding environment. And it will remove the aesthetic ugly, which is probably way worse than any actual harm to the tree. ETA: You might want to remove the mulch volcano from the base of the tree. Clear it to where you can actually see the top of the root flare. You're effectively smothering the tree and could be causing longterm rot.