From my research I have figured out that my new, 4-5' honeycrisp apple tree has tons of Asian lady beetles (if you think they are something else, please let me know)on a new bud and new leaves. Actually I just found them on my 5-6' fuji as well. With the research I couldn't determine if they were going to hurt my tree or not. I just saw that they eat aphids. If they are bad for the tree, how do I get rid of them? Thank you

Sorry, I can't make out what you have. Lady Beetles are red with black spots. Their Larvae (I always thought they looked like little red and black alligators) eat aphids. Lady Beetles are good. I don't know what you have but if they look like red and black alligators, let them be..

I found there are certain lady beetles that are brown with black spots, and that's what I have. They are super tiny too.

I'm having trouble making them out too but I don't think they are Asian lady beetles. Is there any way you can knock one or two off onto a piece of white paper and try and get a sharper picture of them? (The white paper will make the camera focus on the insects). Also roughly where are you in the world, because that will make a difference to what pests occur there.

Could you possibly take a photo of one sitting on a ruler for something for scale?

This is a long shot since I can't see the ID pest clearly, but does it look like this?

https://www.google.ca/search?q...:

Welcome to NGA!

They don't look anything like the Asian lady beetles that were released in our area a few years back (which looked pretty much like our "normal" lady beetles, as far as I could tell). At any rate, I don't believe those "foreign" beetles caused any real problems with plants, they just tended to get indoors everywhere, in mass quantities, which most people didn't look on too kindly. At this point their numbers seem to have dwindled away.

I agree that if you could get a clearer photo, and let us know where you live, it would be very helpful.

To me, they look like the critters in Sue's link.

[quote="sooby"]This is a long shot since I can't see the ID pest clearly, but does it look like this?


That is them! I will try for a better picture, but pretty sure that's them.

Okay I finally got a good pic of them.

The markings vary a bit but yours looks pretty close to this example and the size seems right:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

Since it is apparently a fungus feeder then I guess we need to consider that your apple trees have something growing on them that is attracting the beetles, maybe powdery mildew. It seems unlikely that the beetles are doing any harm anyway.

sooby said:The markings vary a bit but yours looks pretty close to this example and the size seems right:


Since it is apparently a fungus feeder then I guess we need to consider that your apple trees have something growing on them that is attracting the beetles, maybe powdery mildew. It seems unlikely that the beetles are doing any harm anyway.

I think that might be it. I saw this today, would this be powdery mildew? It's a new shoot and it's white, looks fuzzy, and the leaves are curled. If so, I saw a few DIY sprays, any suggestions on getting rid of it? These are our first two trees and I'm already going bonkers will all I need to know lol same with the garden.

***I changed the picture to a better one.

It doesn't look quite like I would expect for powdery mildew, check out these pictures of powdery mildew on apple from Google:

https://www.google.ca/search?q...

Honeycrisp is supposed to be susceptible to powdery mildew but Fuji is not from a couple of references I checked. The leaves are rather curled in your first picture though. If you don't see anything like the pictures of powdery mildew and you only have one leaf with a whitish end, maybe we need to look for something else. I wouldn't worry too much about the trees, they can have all sorts of problems that are resolvable or non-fatal.

sooby said:It doesn't look quite like I would expect for powdery mildew, check out these pictures of powdery mildew on apple from Google:


Honeycrisp is supposed to be susceptible to powdery mildew but Fuji is not from a couple of references I checked. The leaves are rather curled in your first picture though. If you don't see anything like the pictures of powdery mildew and you only have one leaf with a whitish end, maybe we need to look for something else. I wouldn't worry too much about the trees, they can have all sorts of problems that are resolvable or non-fatal.

I edited my post and changed the picture to where the bugs are living and that comes close to matching the description.

What's available in the way of treatment can depend on where you are located and your personal preferences, but this Washington State University article on powdery mildew of apple trees lists both "chemical" and organic methods. If you're in the United States your nearest Extension office should be able to make recommendations of what's available to you also.

http://treefruit.wsu.edu/news/...

[quote="sooby"]What's available in the way of treatment can depend on where you are located and your personal preferences, but this Washington State University article on powdery mildew of apple trees lists both "chemical" and organic methods. If you're in the United States your nearest Extension office should be able to make recommendations of what's available to you also.

Thank you so much! I'm in Washington and their extension office is about 45 mins away. I've been working on getting some of my soil tested as well. Thank you for all your help! I really appreciate it.