Guest blog post from Freedom Home Services for Carolina Tree Care
By Hannah Mayhorn
So — you've gone under contract on a house and booked your home inspection. Now there's nothing left to do except negotiate repairs, get an appraisal, and sign the closing documents after the underwriter approves everything — right?
Before you put your to-do list away, there's one more essential appointment to book.
Take a closer look at the brown, spindle-shaped structures hanging from your arborvitae. Are they pinecones like you first thought? Or could they actually be evidence of bagworms?
Bagworms can cause some serious problems for your tree or shrub, especially if it's an evergreen. Let's dive into what these bugs are and how they can damage your plants.
It may start with a white or gray waxy crust on your crape myrtle's stems, twigs, and trunks.
Then, a sticky substance coats your tree and drips onto anything below.
Annoying ants, flies, and wasps come next, attracted to the sticky mess.
A black mold moves in after that, ruining your tree's look.
And all the while, your tree is losing its vigor and has a lot fewer flowers than it did last year.
Who knew such tiny insects could do so much damage?
We're talking about scales this week and why you need to watch out for them in the upcoming months, especially if you have crape myrtles.
Fruit-smeared sidewalks and driveways. A lawn covered in rotting fruit. An increase of rodents and birds.
If anything in that list made you groan, you're not alone.
Some trees and shrubs produce delicious fruit that a lot of people enjoy. Others grow fruit that are little more than nuisances.
If you're looking for a way to reduce the amount of fruit your tree or shrub produces every year, we have the solution for you!
Have you noticed that the same bugs plague your trees and shrubs year after year? It may be because although they may seem to disappear in the winter, they never really leave. Many insects actually hide away on or near your plants in the winter so that they can continue feasting in the spring.
Bugs have a lot of tricks for surviving Charlotte, NC winters. If you want to know how to protect your trees in the winter so you can cut down on tree pests in the spring, read on!
Your crape myrtle is the crown jewel of your landscape in Concord, NC. Its white, pink, or purple blooms are a sight to behold in the spring. But over the years, your precious crape myrtle has grown a bit big for its space. It may be time for some pruning.
Topping, one of a few ways you can prune crape myrtles, is generally frowned upon in the tree care industry. In fact, topping is often called crape murder! (Cue the dramatic music.)
Why is topping so bad for crape myrtles? We're giving you the top three reasons in this post!
Recent winter storms may have you more concerned about your trees than usual. Did the last storm weaken your trees? Are your trees stable enough to withstand the next one?
A tree risk assessment can give you some clarity.
Winter is a great time to inspect and evaluate your trees for risk. Read on to learn more about the value of tree risk assessments.
During the fall, and maybe a few times this winter, you may have seen small, dark green beetles in your home. If what you saw were elm leaf beetles, you may see the same bugs in your trees this spring.
It isn't too early to schedule a spring plant health care treatment to control elm leaf beetles!
Did you know that a tree with codominant trunks or branches is often much weaker structurally than one with a dominant central trunk and good branch architecture? And a tree with a poor structure is usually the first to fail during storms.
An important part of ensuring your tree remains structurally sound as it grows into maturity is regular structural pruning. And winter is one of the best times to do it.
Have you been enjoying our blog posts as much as we've enjoyed writing them? We sure hope so! Our weekly posts will start up again in the new year, but until then, why not catch up on the blog posts you missed this year?
Browse through this roundup of the most popular blogs we published in 2021!
