Hey tree fam! Sorry I have been so distant. My fathers health has took a turn for the worse and the cancer is winning. All of my mental emotional and physical energy have been drained between dealing with his business, my moms financial struggles, plus running this tree company for my boss. Nevertheless all of you are on my mind regularly and I’m still pursuing my arborist certification. A lady asked about her cherry tree today as a phc concern. I cut away a girdling root and while looking at the leaves I saw a super small little white bug (like 1/3 of an ant) crawling on a leaf. The leaves across the whole tree have small holes like a caterpillar is eating them but no caterpillars present. There are those small “larvae?” bulbs on the leaves and some of the leaves have yellowed and fallen off the tree. She said this is the first year she didn’t have large beautiful leaves on the tree and was concerned for it. Looks like some type of infestation but I have yet to learn about bacterial/infestations on trees so I’m hoping some of y’all can tell me what this is and how to treat it. Thank you all!
Edit: also I pruned this tree last year! No large cuts, everything seems to be healing up well and no new dead wood (there was a decent bit last year)
Edit: also I pruned this tree last year! No large cuts, everything seems to be healing up well and no new dead wood (there was a decent bit last year)