Insect pests and disease pests can threaten the health of your landscape trees and shrubs. The Certified Arborists at Owen Tree Service can identify and offer the correct solution to control insect pests & disease pests on your trees and shrubs. Oftentimes, the solution to insect pests & disease pests on trees and shrubs involves spraying the trees and shrubs.
Spraying trees and shrubs to control insect pests & disease pests has been a reliable method to keep landscape plants healthy. Controlling insect pests & disease pests with tree spraying is probably the most common method used by tree care services to keep trees and shrubs pest free.
Owen Tree Service offers many options for controlling insect pests & disease pests that includes spraying trees and shrubs, as well as alternatives such as soil injections and tree trunk injections. The best method to control insect pests & disease pests may involve just spraying trees and shrubs or it may involve a combination of tree and shrub spraying, soil injections, and trunk injections. The ISA Certified Arborists at Owen Tree Service believe in using integrated pest management and plant health care to keep your trees and shrubs healthy and free of harmful insect pests & disease pests.
Insect Pests
It is important to understand that not all insects in your landscape can be classified as insect pests. Some insects are beneficial and aid in plant pollination or serve as predators to help control harmful insect pests.
The insects that do harm trees and shrubs cause plant damage in a variety of ways. By defoliating trees and shrubs or sucking the sap from trees and shrubs, insect pests retard the growth of landscape plants. Sucking insects cause tree and shrub leaves to become distorted or off color. Boring insects tunnel into the trunk and large branches and interfere with sap flow in the tree and shrub and can structurally weaken the tree and shrub. Insect pests may also serve as vectors for tree and shrub diseases.
Insect pests on trees and shrubs may be divided into three categories according to their method of feeding:
• Chewing insects
• Sucking insects
• Boring insects
Chewing insects eat plant tissue such as tree and shrub leaves, flowers, buds, and twigs. Indications of damage by chewing insect pests is often seen as uneven or broken margins on the tree and shrub leaves, skeletonization of tree and shrub leaves, or mining inside the tree and shrub leaf. Chewing insect pests may be beetle adults or larvae, moth larvae, or caterpillar larvae. Sometimes, the damage pattern caused by the insect pest on the tree and shrub leaves helps to identify the insect pest.
Sucking insect pests insert their beak (proboscis) into the tissues of tree and shrub leaves, twigs, tree and shrub branches, or fruit and then feed on the landscape plants juices. Sucking insect pests can hurt landscape plants by disrupting the normal flow of water and nutrients within the vascular system of the landscape plant. The damage to tree and shrub leaves caused by these insect pests is often seen as leaf discoloration, leaf drooping, leaf wilting, yellow or white leaf spots (stippling), honeydew on lower portions of the tree and shrub, or general lack of vigor in the affected landscape plant.
Boring insects (tree borers) are often the most harmful type of insect pest and do most of their damage to trees as larvae. The larvae of borer insects inhabit the area of the tree just below the tree bark called the cambium. Tree borer insect pests are usually found in the main trunk of the tree, but may often be found in the larger limbs of trees. Tree spraying is helpful if done before this insect pest tunnels into the tree. If tree borers are already in the tree then injections into the tree trunk may limit the damage caused by this insect pest.
Detailed information on insect pests can be found at our Info Center
Disease Pests
Three components are required for a disease to develop, and these are referred to as the disease triangle:
• The presence of a pathogen (the disease-causing agent)
• A landscape plant susceptible to that particular pathogen
• Environmental conditions suitable for disease development on the landscape plant
Landscape plants vary in their susceptibility to disease pests. Also, within a given type of landscape plant such as Crabapples (Malus spp.), the susceptibility of the different varieties of Crabapple trees to common leaf diseases, such as Apple Scab, is quite wide. Some Crabapple tree varieties never become infected with Apple Scab, while other varieties will show high infection levels of Apple Scab even when they are on a disease control program.
Disease pests can hurt your landscape plants in two ways. Serious disease pests, such as Dutch Elm Disease or Oak Wilt, can directly kill a valuable landscape plant. Less serious disease pests may not be the direct cause of a landscape plant dying, but the tree disease weakens the tree or shrub to the point where abiotic stresses or an insect pest causes the eventual demise of the landscape plant.
Detailed information on disease pests can be found at our Info Center
TREE & SHRUB SPRAYING
CONTACT OWEN TREE AT:
● Leonard
Owen Tree Service provides tree, lawn, and landscape services to the following cities and towns:
Genesee County, Michigan:
● Burton
● Davison
● Flushing
● Goodrich
● Linden
● Otisville
● Clio
● Fenton
● Gaines
● Grand Blanc
● Montrose
● Otter Lake
● Flint
● Genesee
● Lennon
● Mt Morris
● Swartz Creek
Lapeer County, Michigan:
● Almont
● Brown City
● Columbiaville
● Imlay City
● Metamora
● Peck
● Attica
● Clifford
● Dryden
● Lapeer
● North Branch
● Sandusky
● Hadley
● Mayville
● Otter Lake
● Silverwood
Macomb County, Michigan:
● Armada
● Clinton Twp
● Grosse Pointe
● Macomb
● New Haven
● St Clair Shores
● Centerline
● Detroit
● Grosse Pointe Farms
● Ray
● Sterling Heights
● Chesterfield
● Eastpointe
● Grosse Pointe Shores
● Memphis
● Romeo
● Utica
● Clinton
● Fraser
● Grosse Pointe Woods
● Mt Clemens
● Roseville
● Warren
● Harrison Twp
● New Baltimore
● Shelby Twp
● Washington
Oakland County, Michigan:
● Auburn Hills
● Bloomfield Village
● Ferndale
● Orion
● South Lyon
● Berkley
● Clarkston
● Franklin
● Madison Heights
● Ortonville
● Southfield
● Beverly Hills
● Clawson
● Hazel Park
● Milford
● Oxford
● Troy
● Bingham Farms
● Commerce Twp
● Highland
● Novi
● Pleasant Ridge
● Walled Lake
● Birmingham
● Davisburg
● Holly
● Oak Park
● Pontiac
● Waterford
● Bloomfield
● Detroit
● Huntington Woods
● Oakland
● Rochester
● West Bloomfield
● Bloomfield Hills
● Farmington
● Lake Orion
● Oakland Twp
● Rochester Hills
● White Lake
● Farmington Hills
● Lathrup Village
● Orchard Lake
● Royal Oak
● Wixom
St. Clair County, Michigan:
● Algonac
● Casco
● East China
● Harbor Beach
● Lexington
● Peck
● Allenton
● Clay
● Emmett
● Harsens Island
● Marine City
● Port Huron
● Berlin
● Clyde
● Fair Haven
● Jeddo
● Marysville
● Richmond
● Brockway
● Columbus
● Fort Gratiot
● Kimball
● Memphis
● Sandusky
● Capac
● Cottrellville
● Goodells
● Lakeport
● North Street
● St Clair
