Japanese Maple Infestation!

12 years ago

Hello everyone,

I have been growing Japanese Maples for over a year now. Recently I saw that one of my Japanese Maples, approximately 2 feet tall, had lost all of its leaves. A couple of days later, another one, same height, had lost all of its leaves.

Today I went to see if it may have been something due to pH, light, or water - but what I saw was a bunch of black spider-like creatures that were crawling around on webs (very small, no bigger than the tip of a pen, but there were many of them).

I immediately began to freak out and put a plentiful amount of sevins dust on the maples. I also took all of my trees and isolated them from one another (3-4 feet between each one).

What could these pests be?

Will sevins dust take care of them?

Will the trees stripped of leaves survive?

And are there any other precautions that need to be taken?

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

brian_graham51
12 years ago
Sounds like you might have Spider Mites. The best thing to kill them is Kelthane. Your local garden shop should have it. Kelthane will take 3 applications 3 days apart to kill the egg cycle. The directions on the bottle will explain all of this. If possible could you take a picture and upload it? This would help verify exactly what it is.
IpmMan
12 years ago
If they are Spider Mites, Sevin is about the worst thing you can do.
Sevin does not kill Spider Mites but kills all their predators.
Kelthane and other miticides are better choices.
Japanese Maples are very sensitive to chemicals and likely to suffer phytotoxic damage. I only treat them when absolutely necessary and test products on small areas.
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jblankenship0930
8 years ago
I had the same issue with some JM seedlings I had, and didn't take appropriate actions that would kill the mites and not harm the tree. But a quick tip, by taking a close look at least once a week at your plants can help catch issues such as mites before they actually kill the plant. It is possible to find the start of an infestation, just have to look for the little bumps or lines of webs starting for spider mites :)
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 years ago
I realize this is a pretty old post but felt the need to respond :-) Whatever was happening with the young maple to lose leaves, I doubt it was spider mites. Spider mites are minute, nearly invisible little creatures that will suck juices from plant leaves. They do not chew or make holes in foliage - generally the damage is only noticeable by being off colored or by its stippled appearance. A complete loss of leaves is a very uncommon result for this type of insect pest so I'd suspect the mites, if in fact that's what they were, are a secondary issue to something else that caused the tree sufficient stress to lose its leaves. Had the cause been only the mites, one would have noticed that a problem existed long before it got to the point where all the leaves fell off. Or were consumed......or whatever happened to them.

If spider mites are detected early - and the very fine webbing at branch and leaf nodes would be the first clue - they are most easily discouraged by water. Spider mites like warm, dry habitats. Increasing the relative humidity by periodically spraying the tree with a fine stream of water is a highly effective deterrent.