Tree Insect Bugging the Tri-State
By: Chris Veech
Updated: May 24, 2012
The latest pest to call the Tri-State home is causing some big messes for property owners. It's called the tulip tree scale. It's about a quarter of an inch long, and it looks like a brownish-redish bump, which attaches itself to tulip trees.
Horticulturalists say they have received many calls about the messes the insects make. That is because when the bug attaches itself to a tree, it begins sucking juices out of the tree.
"Because all that juice that it's sucking out comes raining down as a product called honeydew," said Vanderburgh Co. Extension Agent Larry Caplan, "and it's sticky. It just gets on everything, and we've had people complain about their patios and lawns and cars just being shiny and sticky with all this, basically, bug poop."
Caplan calls the bug more of an annoyance than a threat to plants. He also says some insecticides may lessen the problem, but he says it may be too late in the year for the chemicals to do much good.
