When bugs invade your yard, they can be detrimental to the fruit trees, decorative trees, and other plants growing there. Their buzzing and biting can also turn your perfect relaxation spot into a no-go zone. Being able to control these notorious pests is a crucial step to properly caring for your yard trees.
Regardless of the bugs you are dealing with, you don’t have to keep up with them. Let’s look into what these tree bugs are and ways you can keep them off trees in your yard.
Which Bugs Eat And Destroy Wood From Trees?
In essence, different trees attract different bugs. And various bugs can infest trees and shrubs as these are great places for the bugs to get food. Some bugs eat leaves or wood, while others feed on fruit and seeds. For example, caterpillars and crickets chew on leaves, while aphids suck up sup.
Note that many species of bugs can damage trees and shrubs or otherwise be undesirable in landscapes. Wood borers, termites, carpenter ants, carpenter bees, horntail wasps, and powderpost beetles are the most notorious tree wood destroyers.
Most of these bugs will invade trees to find a suitable shelter, but some, such as termites, feed on the cellulose within the wood and can reduce a massive section of the tree to a flour-like powder in no time.
Also, most camouflaged insects live on plants, and trees and shrubs are good places to hide from their enemies. Whether the bugs in your yard destroy your trees to hide or for nutrition, you should apply pest control treatment before they cause irreversible damage.
How To Treat Bugs On Trees?
There’re several options when it comes to treating bugs on trees in your yard. Below are the two primary solutions:
Homemade Products
These are the products you make at home and spray on your trees to eliminate the harmful bugs. Examples include peppermint oil spray, sprays with dishwashing soap and oil, and pest repellents with hot peppers solution.
While homemade products are relatively cheaper, they will not provide an effective and lasting solution to eliminating tree bugs.
Commercial Products
Instead of going through the hustle of formulating your own homemade products for tree insects and pests, you can buy a specialty tree bugs treatment product. Most commercial products for tree bugs treatment will come as a spray and have compounds targeting specific bugs.
There are even sprays that target various stages of bug development, thus providing great treatment results.
Always consult the product’s label to understand clearly what bugs the product works on.
What Chemicals Can You Spray On Trees? Can They Kill Your Trees?
You can quickly obtain temporary control of certain bugs or prevent them from damaging your yard trees if you choose the correct chemical and apply it at the right time in an appropriate manner.
Pesticides and insecticides that are certified to be safe for home use can be used on trees to eliminate pests and insects and reduce plant damage. As long as you buy your certified chemicals from a reliable retailer, they should be completely harmless and will not kill your trees.
Herbicides are mainly weed killers and should be used on the shrubs as well as weeds sprouting near the trees. Usually, tree bugs breed in these weeds, and hence it is paramount to eliminate them as a first step and a long-term strategy to treat bugs on trees. Herbicides can kill trees and therefore should be limited to the unwanted undergrowth.
One of the reliable ways to confirm if the product in question is certified for home use is to check the word “domestic” on the container.
When Should You Spray Trees For Bugs?
There are specific recommendations for each type of chemical you want to use to treat bugs on trees. To maximize the effectiveness of these products, you should always follow all the recommendations.
• Insecticides – The perfect timing for insecticides is when the flowers fall off. This ensures that no pests targeting the fruits will invade your yard trees. You can also repeat this treatment whenever you see new larval holes on the surface of your fruits. This will keep most common fruit insects completely at bay.
• Pesticides – Pesticides usually follow the same recommendations as insecticides and should be applied when pests are likely to attack the trees. You may need several applications throughout the year, but this depends on the frequency of the infestation.
• Herbicides – Weed killers can be used anytime to kill any stubborn weed growing around your yard trees. If you’re working with pre-emergent herbicides, it’s recommended to spray them in spring to prevent the weeds from sprouting.
All these three products should be sprayed when the air temperature is less than 85◦F so that they are perfectly absorbed to perform their roles.
Also, strong wind and rain may carry the above products to unwanted areas, so you should spray them when the weather is calm.
Lastly, no matter the kind of chemical you’re using, you should never spray your trees when they’re in their blooming stage. This ensures that you don’t kill important insects such as bees that are crucial in pollination. This mainly applies to fruit trees that need pollination for fruit development.
Many bugs or the damage they cause to the trees or shrubs look similar, especially to the untrained eye. Some bugs can be easily confused with ones that are innocuous or beneficial. Often, when a tree has an unhealthy appearance there might be no obvious cause, for instance when the pest’s feeding spot is hidden like under the bark of a tree.
Thus, the correct pest identification and proper diagnosis of the cause of the unhealthy trees are essential for choosing the correct pest control method. And even closely related pests require different management tactics.
If you don’t have the time or ability to research which bugs are damaging your yard trees, and then safely and effectively apply the appropriate chemical to control the infestation, you should consider hiring a skilled and experienced Lawn and Tree Care Professional such as Guaranteed Green in Atlanta, GA.
Give us a call today at (770) 599-2774 to find out more about our tree and shrub care services or to schedule a treatment as soon as possible.
