brrywill

I agree, they are incidious. They will kill any tree they get into, given enough time. I had four beautiful hybrid Poplars all in a row in the back of my property, eighty feet tall. They killed one per year until they were all dead and had to be cut down. They attacked by the thousands.

They throw off a disguisting black sticky substance called honey due, which gets all over everything around and on the tree. It attracts bees, ants, and disease. It's disease that ultimatley kills the tree. I called Penn State, but they had no difinitive answers for them at this point.

I ended up developing my own defence system that seems to be working for the most part. You might find it helpful if you have an infestation.

I use the high pressure setting on my garden hose to knock them off the tree. They jump off as soon as they are hit by the stream of water. When they fall to the ground, I step on as many as I can, then us a good fly swatter to get the ones that climb back onto the tree, Amazon sells a leather one. They always start back on the bottom of the tree and climb up the trunk. That's when they are most vulnerable. I also use a ring or two of the wide sticky paper around the trees to slow them down. I havn't lost any trees since using this method. The down side is it takes time, as it is best to do this more than once a day.

pgerardi Loc: Bethel Park, PA

If you are coming to the Pittsburgh area, be prepared. Certain areas are currently infested and you cant sit outside due these creatures.