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infestation tagged posts

healthy crapemyrtle

Crapemyrtle woes

Thanks to the University of Maryland/Maryland Grows this informative article about crapemyrtle woes.

Q:  My crapemyrtle has white stuff on the bark that I’ve never noticed before, though the foliage looks unaffected, if a bit dull lately. I thought these plants were pretty pest-free, so what might this be?

A:  We’ve had a lot of inquiries about this lately. Your plant has Crapemyrtle Bark Scale(CMBS), a non-native insect pest that was discovered in Texas in 2004. It was confirmed in Maryland in 2020. Incidentally, crapemyrtles also can host Crapemyrtle Aphid. And, it’s possible for the two to be infesting a plant simultaneously; their impacts on the plant are similar.

Crapemyrtle Bark Scale on a crapemyrtle trunk. Sooty mold is darkening some of the outer bark layers. Photo: Jim Robbins, Univ. of Ark. CES, Bugwood.org
An infestation of Crapemyrtle Bark Scale on a crapemyrtle trunk...
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