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Fruit & Orchards

Small black bugs on my Pink Lady

8 years ago

Hello everyone, I just recently got married, and one of our wedding presents was a pink lady apple tree. They planted it for us about 4 weeks ago, maybe 5, and it has seemed to be very happy so far. She has been busy putting out new leaves over most of the branches and looking pretty healthy. However when I went out for my every other day inspection of the tree I noticed a large collection of very small black, round bugs on just the leaves and stems. They were not collected on the branches or trunk at all. When I ran my fingers over some they pull off and disintegrate, but when I sprayed them with the hose, they did not want to come off very easily. I got the majority of them off, but by then I had a good amount of standing water at the base of my tree and I don't want to drown her. I broke the ring and drained off the excess so that's not an issue.

Can anyone tell me what these insects are? Are they harmful? How do I get rid of them? Is there a spray? I really don't want to lose this tree as it was a gift and I'm sure it wasn't cheap. I'm sorry the quality of the photo is low, I took it with my phone before our thunderstorms blew in this morning.

There are are probably 5 or 6 dozen of these bugs on my leaves and new stems. Please advise and help me keep Cindy healthy

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Comments (4)

speedster1
8 years ago
Probably aphids.
campv 8b AZ
8 years ago
Black Aphids ---couple squirts of dish soap in a spray bottle....shake spray...

Not in hot sun
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larry_gene
8 years ago
Horticultural oil, premixed or mixed properly, will smother these insects. Once the tree has stopped producing new leaves this year, the aphid attacks may lessen. Hand-removal every other day will work, but if aphids get into the smallest of new leaves, those leaves may become deformed quickly. Best to keep the newest growth oiled. Once the tree is larger, some aphid damage will not be as critical.
ubro
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Just a side note on what is called a Pink Lady Apple Tree if you are interested in some of it's features search for it under Cripps Pink.

The name Pink Lady has been trademarked to apply only to the best apples of the year harvested off of Cripps Pink Apple trees, it applies only to the apples not to the tree itself. You may harvest some apples off your tree that qualify to the Pink Lady status and you may harvest ones that only qualify to a Cripps Pink status.

I don't particularily like this kind of confusing information to increase sales. By trademarking the name they lead the public to believe there is actually another apple variety out there, and if you already own a Cripps Pink, don't buy Pink Lady,( vis versa) thinking you are getting a different tree.

I have included an excerpt for interest sake from a apple orchard that specialized in 300 apple cultivars.

The story of Cripps Pink:

We’re not sure which is more interesting: the origins of this apple – which was bred in the 1970s using Golden Delicious and the lesser-known Lady William – or the marketing shenanigans that followed.

The shenanigans involve the transformation of Cripps Pink into two apples.

One is the ‘ultra high-quality’ Pink Lady, the name given to the best third or so of the harvest each year.

The other is plain old Cripps Pink, the regular quality apple that’s really just the culls that don’t qualify to be called Pink Lady.

All of this is in an effort to market this variety as a deluxe apple.

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