Keep your trees strong and healthy with proactive, preventative expert tree care from Shady Lane
Ensuring your trees and shrubs are healthy, demands proactive management. Healthy trees and shrubs are more resistant to insects and diseases because their natural defence mechanisms are strong.
The objective of Plant Health Care (PHC) is to maintain or improve the landscape’s appearance, vitality and safety using the most effective and environmentally sensitive practices and treatments available. PHC involves routine monitoring, preventative treatment, and a working relationship between the arborist and the property owner.
Our plant health care programs take advantage of all aspects of arboriculture industry recommended best practices, including smart planting techniques, pruning, fertilizing and proactive monitoring. These practices can eliminate or help to reduce the factors that stress or predispose a tree to insect infestations and diseases.
When a pest does arrive....don’t worry, , we have a solution. We treat each issue individually to ensure the most appropriate products are used at the most effective time. Contact Shady Lane today for a free quote!
Common Insects found in Ontario Landscapes
Aphids; One of the most destructive insects on cultivated plants are aphids, sap-sucking insects that are typically noticeable on shade trees and ornamental plants. They attack almost all species of plants, damaging the underside of leaves to leave spotty, yellow discolouration.
Woolly aphids; Beech woolly aphids or beech blight aphids – are small insects that feed on the sap of American beech trees. They feed on the fluids in leaf tissue, causing leaves to curl and distort. They also produce a sticky substance called honeydew which can stain patio stones, wooden furniture, and walkways.
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Box Tree Moth; Boxwoods are planted as ornamentals and typically used for edging, as hedges, and/or clipped into different shapes to make topiaries. However when infested, the plants are disfigured by the loss of leaves, by webbing spun by the larvae, as well as larval excrements. Larvae feed principally on leaves of the host but may also attack the bark
Cedar Leaf Miner; Cedar Leaf Miner larvae mine foliage from the tip to the base of the branchlet. Damaged foliage turns brown and is hollowed out as the larvae feeds from the inside. Tiny emergence holes can be found near the base of brown tissue after adults emerge in spring. Damage is often confused with winter burn or physiological dieback.
Euonymus Scale; Euonymus plants are deciduous or evergreen shrubs with leaves and small flowers which bear fruit that have a reddish, pink, ivory to yellow capsule that splits to show orange-red seeds. The euonymus scale is a key pest of deciduous and evergreen euonymus and pachysandra (an evergreen perennial or subshrub, and celastrus (bittersweet or staff vine). Vine-type euonymus are extremely susceptible to attacks by this scale. The armoured scales feed on leaf tissue, causing stunted growth, curled leaves, and death.
Japanese Beetles; Adults often feed in a group, skeletonizing leaves with only a network of veins remaining when feeding damage is heavy. Larvae are most commonly found feeding on the fibrous roots of turfgrass.
Locust Plant bugs and leafhoppers; Honey Locust plant bugs and leaf hoppers become active as new leaves begin to develop. Plant bug feeding causes leaf yellowing, stippling, stunting and deforming early in the season. Leaf hoppers cause leaf spotting, stippling and blackening of leaf margins. Shoot dieback may occur. Defoliation may occur on severely infested trees.
Locust Plant Bugs and Leaf Hoppers
Magnolia Scale; These soft brown Magnolia Scale insects can kill trees if abundant. Feeding injury causes honeydew, sooty mould and twig dieback. The honeydew attracts bees, wasps and hornets.
Two Spotted Spider Mites; Attacked leaves become dull-coloured with bronzed or bleached foliage. Leaves may have stippled appearance and webbing may be present. Check underside of leaves for tiny mites and webs. Mites balloon on webbing to reach new food sources.
Common Diseases found in Ontario Landscapes;
Apple Scab; Apple scab describes the disease as it appears on the disfigured host leaves and fruit. Apple scab also causes premature leaf drop reducing tree vigor. Early leaf drop also forces the host tree to draw on stored energy reserves to produce a second leaf flush for the season.
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Fireblight; Fire blight affects succulent, vegetative growth. Dead, dry leaves persist on infected branches. Major symptoms of fire blight appear during warm, moist weather in late spring, however, larger cankered limbs may not die back until dry weather during mid-summer. Milky-white to amber droplets of bacterial ooze may exude from infected plant parts. Cambial tissue is killed in the region of the canker and will be brown or black instead of green. Bark in cankered areas is darker than surrounding tissue and may appear sunken. Branches appear as if scorched by fire; branch tips curve downward in a characteristic shepherd’s crook.
Needlecast; Symptoms of Needlecast appear between early spring and early summer when needles infected the previous season turn purple or lavender. By mid-season, infected needles drop, leaving only current season growth.
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Pear Trellis Rust; Pear Trellis Rust disease is easily detected on pear leaves which become covered with orange spots in early summer and grey, fuzzy growth in the fall. Severely infected pear trees may develop gall-like growths at the base of twigs. Infected junipers nearby will continue to grow and appear healthy.
Pear Trellis Rust Disease Fact Sheet
Powdery Mildew; Symptoms include a white, powdery coating (fungal mat of mycellium) on the tops of leaves. Visible signs of this disease also include distorted or stunted foliage, shoots, flowers or fruit. Chlorosis, browning and premature death of leaves, and slower growth are all symptoms of infection by powdery mildew. Repeated infections can cause decline and death.
Tar Spot; Tar spot causes prominent raised black spots 5-15 mm across, usually with a furrowed surface. As Maple leaves develop to full size, light to yellowish green spots develop in the infected areas of the leaves. The area becomes yellow, with numerous small, raised, black spots forming within the yellow area. As late summer and early fall approaches the black spots coalesce to form large, irregular, shiny raised spots with the appearance of wet tar, called stroma. Severely infected leaves may fall prematurely.
Oak Wilt; Oak Wilt is a highly destructive fungal disease that primarily affects oak trees. It spreads by sap-feeding beetles and interconnected roots. When oak trees are pruned or cut during the growing season the fresh wounds will attract the Nitidulid beetle. This is the beetle that can transport oak wilt. For this reason, as a responsible tree care company, we are no longer pruning oak trees in the growing season
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