Hi all! I’m absolutely completely and utterly ready to scream with frustration with an ongoing issue that nobody seems to be able to solve. And today i found what might be the culprit and have a photo but am even more confused. i planted 2 forest pansy (redbud) trees last year and all their beautiful leaves were chewed to bits and i was surprised they’d die but they recently grew new leaves and i bought a rising sun (redbud) tree and of course it was a stupid thing to do because now i have 3 trees being defoliated and it’s driving me crazy. photos below. just to mention for an entire year I constantly see very fine spider web on them BUT never catch sight of culprits. I have repeatedly sprayed organic insecticide and nothing helps. Someone recently said spider mites so i bought 7 bottles (i did mention how frustrated i am) of bug clear which is also in photos. After repeated spraying the webs continue and damage continues and trees are almost bare. but then today i finally finally saw a little spider weaving the webbing. At last i found what was doing it and i took a photo. But….. its not spider mites. In fact this spider is approximately half the size of tour little finger nail. So it’s small but surely not a mite? please help me. I will be so sad to have to dig up my 3 redbud trees. But i can’t find anyone to help Ah sorry…. Says files too big on all the photos i upload
https://bluejaybarrens.blogspot.com/2015/09/whats-eating-redbuds.html the above link covers many different insect / larvae that chew on red bud leaves. This is available at big box stores. I use Bayer systemic applied to soil as the tree is watered it absorbs the systemic enough to stop the attack . I use it on several trees that have the similar problem. Works great. What zone is your location. Also make your pic smaller to medium size when uploading from your photo options.
