Question
acer tree
hi jim, i live in spain and i have an acer in the garden,a few months ago i noticed the leafs starting to drop off, have now noticed this sort of growth on the bark, on picking a piece off there was a small white maggot inside, what is it and will it kill the tree, i have sprayed it with a insecteside and there's new buds showing
AnswerIt looks like scale insects.
These insects suck the plant juices from the plant and live under a shell most of their life making it more difficult to control. A systemic insecticide works best. If the tree is small and you can reach the limbs you can rub the scales off and this will kill the insect inside. A new insecticide here in the US is called Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect killer. It is applied to the soil around the tree and the roots take the insecticide to the plant tissue and when the scale sucks the plant juices it is killed. Do not know if it is available in Spain.
Here is a list of other insecticides that will work but will need to be sprayed a couple of times about ten days apart.
chlorpyrifos (Dursban)
carbaryl (Sevin)
acephate (Orthene)
malathion (Malathion)
Orthene would be the best since it has some systemic action.
