By the charlie sheen dream team Aphids Common

By: the charlie sheen dream team

Aphids • Common on trees throughout the South • All southern pines are subject to attack. • Aphids are soft bodied and oftentimes wingless insects less than 1/8" long. • The rate of reproduction is very rapid, and many generations are produced each year.

Scale insects are very small and fairly flat. They change the appearance of the tree surface. In the picture (left), the white cottony-looking stuff is a scale insect infestation

Gypsy moth • The moths are harmless, but the caterpillars from which they develop feed on the leaves of forest, shade, ornamental, fruit trees, and shrubs. • The number of trees killed by gypsy moth defoliation is relatively small, but many trees become weakened and susceptible to secondary attack by other insects.

Douglass fir tussock moth This caterpillar is an important defoliator of true firs and Douglas-fir in western North America. The first indication of attack appears in late spring. Defoliation occurs in the tops of trees and outer branches, then in the lower crown and innermost area of branches later. By August, upper crowns may be completely bare. The adult male moth is brown to black with feathery antennae and a wingspan of about one inch.

Spruce budworm vmost widely distributed and destructive defoliator of coniferous forests in Western North America. v. Adult moths (fig. 2) are about 12. 7 mm long and have a wingspread of 22 to 28 mm v. The gray- or orange-brown forewings are banded or streaked, and each usually has a conspicuous white dot on the wing margin. v. Eggs are oval, light green, and about 1. 2 mm long and overlap like shingles

Spider mite v. Spider mites have tiny mouthparts modified for piercing individual plant cells and removing the contents. This results in tiny yellow or white speckles. When many of these feeding spots occur near each other, the foliage takes on a yellow or bronzed cast. Once the foliage of a plant becomes bronzed, it often drops prematurely. v. Heavily infested plants may be discolored, stunted or even killed. Web producing spider mites may coat the foliage with the fine silk which collects dust and looks dirty.

Cicada v. Cicadas damage both twigs and roots of host trees. vfemale cicadas insert eggs into twigs through 1”– 4” slits they make in the bark vparts of the twigs that are beyond the oviposition sites frequently die as a consequence of the damage. v. Nymphs feed on the roots of many plants.

Leaf spot vleaf spots can be caused by air pollutants, insects, bacteria et al. , most are a result of infection by pathogenic fungi. v Partial to complete defoliation may occur under favorable conditions for the causal fungus. v. All commonly grown trees and shrubs are subject to attack by one or more leaf infecting fungi.

Beetles • Pine Bark Beetles of Florida • Black turpentine beetle, [top, left] Dendroctonus terebrans is found at the bottom six feet of trunks. • Southern pine beetle, SPB (Dendroctonus frontalis [botton, left] does not infest pines found in southern Florida. • Ips beetles [3 species at right] are found on the upper sections of pine trunks. • Diagram by John Foltz, UF/IFAS

Wood borer

Wildlife/ livestock damage v. Animals and other livestock damage trees

Needle cast v. The term needle cast refers to a fungus-caused disease of needles. v. Needle cast may be caused by any one of several fungal species capable of infecting southern pines.

Sawfly v. Heavy defoliation can lead to growth loss and tree mortality voccurs in southeastern Canada and throughout the eastern and southern United States v. Loblolly and longleaf pines are preferred hosts, although shortleaf, pitch, and slash pines are also attacked. vcan be distinguished from caterpillars by counting the number of fleshy prolegs v. Caterpillars have five pairs or less; sawflies six pairs or more v. The body is about 1 inch long and pale whitish yellow to bright yellow in color with 4 to 6 rows of black spots on the body vcylindrical cocoon is reddish brown and about 1/2 inch long vadults resemble flies. They have four transparent wings and vary from '/5 to 2/5 inch in length

Air pollution v. Symptoms include browning on needles that occurs in a mottled pattern. Plant specialists call this chlorosis. The browning progresses to premature needle drop, and eventually causes premature death in Ponderosa pines.

Canker vsome species are known to cause severe cankering of stressed hardwoods. vpremature death of trees stressed by drought, construction damage, or other problems v. Rapidly rotting tissue leads to structural weakening, which causes serious hazard to people or property in high-use areas vfungal spores enter wounds, germinate, and grow into the cambium, severely cankering and often girdling the tree very quickly.

Sunscald v This disease occurs during late winter or early spring when the temperature is above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. During the day the tree tissues, warmed by the sun, become active. v. Freezing at night kills this tissue, resulting in an elongated canker usually on the southwest side of the tree. v. Thin barked trees such as maples are most susceptible to this type of injury.

Damping off symptoms of disease vary. Emerging or established seedlings fall over and die rapidly, collapsing even when soil moisture is adequate. When dug up and inspected, the plants are soft, dark colored and usually disintegrating.

mistletoe v. Parasitic plant that drains trees of nutrients and energy (dark matter)

Wetwood or slime flux voriginates from infections of the heartwood and inner sapwood by common soil-inhabiting bacteria v. Pruning a branch or taking a core with an increment borer can sometimes release the materials under pressure, squirting the worker with foul-smelling liquid and gas

Chemical damage v. Improperly applied herbicides can injure trees. v. Leaves of deciduous trees will become distorted, curled, and brown on the margins. v. Conifer needles will turn yellow or brown, and succulent shoots will curl or become deformed. v. Trees will usually survive, but their growth will be stunted.

Tent caterpillar v. The eastern tent caterpillar is primarily an aesthetic problem vhas little effect on the host trees. v. Species of the genus Prunus are preferred, with black cherry being the primary host.

Mechanical damage v. Cat face" scars from equipment use resemble animal feeding but are generally larger and lack teeth marks; the wood may be gouged.

Landscape equipment damage v. Thin bark trees will show the damage externally. The bark will become stripped and may even become girdled. v. Heavier bark trees such as maples and oaks receive internal injuries, which leads to decay. v. These trees become more susceptible to insect and disease problems over time.

Girdling roots v. Roots begin to grow around the main stem of the tree and cut off or restrict the movement of water, plant nutrients and stored food reserves.

Fire damage • The impact of leaf scorch is the loss of growth. It can also result in tree death. • If the leaves are scorched, you can be assured that the radiant heat has also caused some degree of wood damage.

Snow damage • Caused by heavy snow or ice • Breaks tree limbs, often killing tree or misshaping it.

Wind damage • Uproots trees, break limbs, and often kills trees

Frost damage

Drought damage

Hail damage • Hail hits the tree and causes a boo-boo, and eventually it calluses over

nematode Root knot nematodes usually cause distinctive swellings, called galls, on the roots of affected plants. Infestations of these nematodes are fairly easy to recognize; dig up a few plants with symptoms The nematodes feed and develop within the galls, which can grow as large as 1 inch in diameter on some plants but usually are much smaller.

rust species of the fungus genus Gymnosporangium. These rust diseases can be very harmful to the thriftiness of apple trees. If severe infections of cedarapple rust continue for several seasons, apple tree death can be the result. Damage to apple is brought about chiefly by premature defoliation. Affected fruit are smaller, deformed, and undesirable for marketing.

Lightning damage

Butt or heart rot • Heart rot fungi are not aggressive pathogens and are unable to infect a tree through intact bark. Instead heart rot fungi take advantage of wounds from lawn mowers, weed whips, fire scars, deer rubbing, rodent chewing, frost cracks, broken branches and other injuries to access the sapwood and heart wood. Some heart rot fungi can also enter a tree through an old branch stub or through the trees roots. Once inside the tree, the fungi use a variety of enzymes and other chemicals to breakdown the wood for food.