Thank you, bboy. As it turns out, we did visit a local nursery with a Master Gardener on the premises and he was able to identify the problem. Turns out what everyone else (including several people in nurseries) thought was the dried up remains of a pest, was effluence. The MG speculated that the tips dying back was due to bacterial blight, and the tree's response was to weep sap out just at the spot where deadwood met live wood. He said all maples have such high sugar content in the sap that when it oozes out and subsequently dries it looks white and hardened, like that on my branches.

Sherry, Its always a threat, but its usually its overstated. I said "start to think" suffices to say that if you wear appropriate clothing, there is no worry at all unless you get caught, and thatÂs why we are told to prepare for emergencies in the car and at home. I have had to be outside in really cold weather for hours at a time back in highschool for my job, and I never had any incidence of frostbite (well once, but it was minor). I have lived in the north all my life and there is no risk if you know what to do- frostbite is real threat but really a concern usually. Your skin on your face is sensitive, so it can send you the signals I described but still be perfectly fine Âand for me always is- reversed within moments of getting in a heated area. Just getting cold will make your face muscles go rather stiff  but I have never seen or known of anyone who knew of anyone who had their face frozen off!

Am I correct in assuming the top of the tree is facing up in the pictures and this is the trunk we're looking at? What it most closely resembles is a spot on the east side of a big tree of mine which suffered a long vertical split probably from the sun heating it up. Once the split was open water got in and caused all sorts of rot. You could trace the rot down the bark as I sliced it with the chainsaw.

Hi Andrew...I had scale and sooty mold on my Glenn over the winter when I had to leave it in the garage for long periods of time when we had frost/freeze. I treated mine with a mixture of Murphy's oil soap, water and neem oil. I had to wait till the flowers started to form mangoes before I could treat it because I didn't want to kill the blooms. I concentrated on spraying only the leaves and was very careful avoiding spraying the blooms with baby mangoes that were forming. I also did this after the sun was gone it would dry by the next day. I didn't want to sunburn the leaves. I've sprayed it 3 times since and seems to be gone now. I've heard alcohol is very good for scale too. Good luck! Since you asked about my Lychee tree...I posted a couple of pics...hope you don't mind. I tip pruned several of the branches a couple of days after I planted it and now is putting out new growths on all the tips I pruned. Harry is right...Lychee trees LOVE water...I've been watering this tree often plus we've had over 4" of rain in the last 8 days and it just seems to really love the regular moisture. New growths are proof of it!