Disease and integrated pest management:

Arbor Scout Programs

Insect pests and diseases weaken trees by consuming or damaging foliage, stem and root tissue. We design programs to suppress insects and diseases utilizing the latest practices of Plant Health Care (PHC). Seasonal insect monitoring ensures tree and shrub health with the safest and most efficient control method instituted at the correct time.
Each visit incorporates the application of treatments designed to be most effective at various times throughout the year. Our trained PHC Technician utilizes specially designed trucks allowing us to use the most advanced, state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly controls available.

Insects
Some insects can cause injury and damage to trees and shrubs. By defoliating trees or sucking their sap, insects can retard plant growth. By boring into the trunk and branches, they interfere with sap flow and weaken the tree structure. Insects may also carry some plant diseases. In many cases, however, the insect problem is secondary to problems brought on by a stress disorder or pathogen.
It is important to remember that many insects are beneficial rather than destructive. They help with pollination or act as predators of more harmful species. Therefore, killing all insects without regard to their kind and function can actually be detrimental to tree health.
Insects may be divided into three categories according to their method of feeding: chewing, sucking, and boring. Insects from each group have characteristic patterns of damage that will help you determine the culprit and the proper treatment. Contact your Plant Solutions Certified Arborist to determine the nature of the insect problem and the proper treatment.

Sucking insects insert their beak (proboscis) into the tissues of leaves, twigs, branches, flowers, or fruit and then feed on the plants juices. Some examples of sucking insects are aphids, mealy bugs, thrips, and leafhoppers. Damage caused by these pests is often indicated by discoloration, drooping, wilting, leaf spots (stippling), honeydew, or general lack of vigor in the affected plant.

Boring insects -  All pests in this category spend time feeding somewhere beneath the bark of a tree as larvae. Some borers kill twigs and leaders when adults feed or when eggs hatch into larvae that bore into the stem and develop into adults. Other borers, known as bark beetles, mate at or near the bark surface, and adults lay eggs in tunnels beneath the bark.

Chewing insects eat plant tissue such as leaves, flowers, buds, and twigs. Indications of damage by these insects is often seen by uneven or broken margins on the leaves, skeletonization of the leaves, and leaf mining. Chewing insects can be beetle adults or larvae, moth larvae (caterpillars), and many other groups of insects. The damage they cause (leaf notching, leaf mining, leaf skeletonizing, etc.) will help in identifying the pest insect.

Disease Treatments
All trees and shrubs, whether evergreen, deciduous or ornamental, may be prone to or suffer from certain diseases. The majority of foliar diseases are caused by fungi and are most prevalent in the wet weather of the spring. Our treatments provide a protective barrier on the leaf or needle surface that prevents germination and growth of disease causing spores decreasing the vulnerability of your plants to disease. Our highly trained staff can design a custom program for your property based upon your particular landscape conditions and species composition.

Please contact us for more info.