Crape Myrtle Aphids
The aphids do little damage in small numbers.
Crape myrtle aphids. They are extremely prolific however and populations can rapidly build up to damaging numbers during the growing season. Drooping leaves yellow spots black small dots on the underside of the leaves these are what aphids look like to the naked eye honeydew sooty mold ants on the tree ants love the taste of honeydew. Crape myrtle aphids are tiny only about a 16th of an inch long. This often leads to a black fungus called sooty mold forming on leaves and branches in mid to late summer.
Honey dew is basically a kinder term for the sugar laden aphid leavings or the many other terms one could use for the sappy mess that falls from crepe myrtles when they are under attack from aphids. Unfortunately when these natural enemies are disrupted read killed crape myrtle aphids get out of control. Fortunately the common lady bug can eat up to 1 000 of these little critters a day. My tonto crape myrtles stay covered with aphids and black mildew.
They feed by sticking their mouthparts into a plant and sucking out the sugar rich sap like a teenager slurping down a frappuccino. Tinocallis kahawaluokalani this aphid species attacks only crape myrtle. Signs symptoms of aphids on crepe myrtles. The problem then becomes how do we prevent them and when we cannot how do we treat them.
Trails of them going up and down the tree signal that. The trees are close to our house. Control these insects by. However if you don t happen to have a large supply of lady bugs on hand you can spray your crape myrtle with over the counter diazinon or malathion available at most home improvement stores.
If you turn over your crepe myrtle leaves you ll see lots of small soft bodied yellow green insects feeding these are the crepe myrtle aphids. It is usually abundant wherever the tree is grown. Crape myrtle aphids and other aphids attract a lot of generalist predators such as lady beetles green lacewings and minute pirate bugs that keep them in check. I ve tried every product available and none keeps the aphids away for more than two weeks.
Of all the possible insects to have on your plants these are the easiest when it comes to crepe myrtle pest control. Aphids are bothersome little insects that eat crape myrtle leaves.