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American Hornbeam: Leaf Damage, Possible Pest Problem, Need Help!

ZeBonsai Kers
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago

Hi all, thanks in advance for reading this post and for any advice that you may have to offer. I'm dealing with a new species, new leaf problems, and new bugs, so I am not sure what to do.

I received an American Hornbeam pre-bonsai via FedEx about 2.5 weeks ago (Feb 20). It was shipped from Florida and was coming out of dormancy with brand new leaf buds beginning to sprout when I unpackaged it. We still have some winter left here in Alabama, so I immediately potted it and set it up it in my bonsai-wintering room that I typically use for tropicals (so that it wouldn't go back into dormancy). The temp stays 65-85F with 40-85% humidity, both depending on the outside weather. I have CFL bulbs pretty close to the leaves of the Hornbeam and I mist its canopy with a handheld plant sprayer at least twice per day when I have the house's central heat blowing (to maintain humidity).

The tree seems to have been doing great and has put out a lot of leaves over the past 2.5 weeks, however today I took a closer look and noticed some leaf damage. Some of the leaves just had holes in them, others looked like they had been chewed on by a worm or caterpillar. I spent about half an hour searching but found no worms or caterpillars (last week though I did find a green inchworm on the wall about 8 feet away from the tree). Then I decided to remove the damaged leaves, as the tree has plenty of healthy ones to hold it over. While I was removing the leaves I noticed 5 tiny black bugs with round shiny shells, all solitary, each no larger than a millimeter in diameter. All 5 were at canopy height, though none that I found were on branches or leaves. Instead they were all either scurrying around on the hard bark of the main trunk or hanging out in old pruning scars. I removed and killed all 5 of these bugs, and tried to get a picture of one but its size made that very difficult (all you can see is a black dot in the picture). Soon after I found another type of bug, a little bit larger (maybe a couple millimeters long) and green with what appeared to be immature wings. This bug was on a leaf and when I tried to grab it, it hopped like a flea to the next leaf. I eventually caught it, put it in a drainage dish and got a decent picture of it and also a video of it crawling. I have dealt with aphids, scale, and mealy bugs in the past, but I have never seen these two types of bugs that I found today before.

My questions:

  • Can anyone identify these bugs?
  • If so, are they pests/harmful?
  • Could one of, or possibly both, of these bugs be the culprit behind the leaf damage?
  • Could the leaf damage be due to something else (e.g. temp, humidity, light, etc.)?

For reference, I have attached photos of:

  • the tree immediately after unpackaging (to show the stage of bud-burst that it was in when I received it)

  • the tree as it stands now

  • the wintering setup

  • the leaf damage (leaves are pictured after removal, however no damage was done to any leaves during removal [the condition they are in in this picture are as I found them on the tree])

  • the pruning scars in which I found some of the small black bugs (will attach to new post)
  • the two bug types that I found (in a brown drainage dish with red circles drawn around them) (will attach to new post)

I also attached a video of the second bug type that I found crawling. (will attach to new post)

*I'm sorry for the information/photo overload, I just want to be sure that I have provided enough information for someone who knows what they are talking about to be able to make an accurate judgment call and hopefully provide some valuable insight. I figured more is better than not enough.

Thanks again for reading, and thanks in advance to anyone who can provide some answers.

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