Tree disease or insect eggs?
Question:1 of my dad's tree is growing slowy. We compared this tree to the other trees and can notice that this tree is smaller than the others. There are red buldges on the stems of this tree and not on the others. We took pliers and pulled one off, the red buldges are hard and rouch, but when we squished it, yellow liquidy substance came out. This tree is a magnolia flower cup tree. So is this some type of commenalism/parisitism. And is it a tree disease or insect eggs?
Answers:
It is Magnolia Scale , or close relative . That is the larval insect in the scale. The tree needs to be treated , when they hatch out , & you see them crawling about . Will look up treatment for you. (Stink, don't they!?)
Here : , from Penn St. http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/factsheets...
Boiled down: Spray with insecticidal soap, &/or summer (non-dormant) horticultural oil, late Aug-early Sept to get the crawlers. Spray with horticultural oil (dormant) in fall (after leaf drop) AND early spring ( as buds swell, before they begin to open) to get the critters in the scales . You'll probably have to do this 2 or 3 years to get rid of it completely .( During the summer, water the trees during extended dry periods. Stressed plants attract pests )
This from THE Ohio St. U. ;D http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/20...
ps gail, I'd estimate a 99+% probability it is Magnolia Scale . It's on the branches themselves . Galls tend to be on the leaves, or the branch tips . Don't know of any on Magnolia .
Sounds like a gall. I think these can be caused by several things - its the trees response to something (it forms to try to cope with a problem, like scar tissue does in an animal).
Try looking up info on galls.
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