I got this same thing on a sweet cherry tree and end up chopping it down, of course it is growing out of the side of the trunk, I decided I will let it live and see if I can treat it so the avoid that nasty soot. I noticed I have alot of lady bugs on my roses and they eat those suckers. My crapes last year got black spot. I guess crapes and roses are strongly related?? I am trying a garlic, water and milk mixture to fight the fungus and bugs (I am guessing they hate the taste of garlic since they never touch any of my garlic plants. When I spray the leaves of my roses it seems to deter the bugs not sure just yet just experimenting. japanesse beetles dont' seem to be a problem, one year they showed themselves but didn't last long and didn't do much damage to anything. some people just use a strong spray of the hose to get rid of the aphids they can't climb back up once they are knocked off. I have alot of acrage and birds galore I am sure they eat the bugs and that is why I seldom have a problem with them, yet. RR

No need for a picture to identify what you've described, but please post just for fun. You have a crop of highly beneficial lacewing eggs. Lacewing larvae are voracious predators of very small, soft bodied critters such as aphids, mites, adelgids, scale crawlers, and the eggs of those insects.

I bought and planted a crepe myrtle from a central Louisiana nursery, and bought it when it was in bloom. It was dark bright pink, and for several years after it bloomed as such. I have had it for about 15-20 years. I live in deep south Texas on the coast. For the past few years it has had a mix of bright pink and light pink-whiter blooms at the same time. It is only one trunk which branches at about 3 feet off the ground, and the blooms are evenly distributed, so I think it is something lacking in our soil. usually it tests at about neutral, where La. soil is usually acidic,or else I am bleaching the blooms with gray water. Which is what we use to water our yard freq.

Have you lightly scraped any of the bark to see if it’s green underneath? Scratch tests are usually accurate on these, ime. I’m sorry to say this one looks dead or severely damaged. Even though certain CMs are notorious for being late to leaf out, it should be showing some signs of life by now. This looks too dried up and brittle for late spring. Where are you located? Did it suffer freeze damage? Is there any green coming up from below? If there is, you’ll need to cut all dead wood down and let the shoots grow. Info: https://neilsperry.com/2021/05/retraining-a-frozen-tree-form-crape-myrtle/ https://neilsperry.com/2021/05/retraining-a-frozen-tree-form-crape-myrtle/ If freezing isn’t an issue …. I can’t tell in the photo, but CMs do not do well if planted too deep. They can be very picky about that, and will struggle and/or die if not planted at a proper height. I have one that I initially planted correctly (I thought), but it settled too much later … it let me know fast. I had to carefully dig around the trunk to expose the root flare or it wouldn’t have survived. The CM was a couple of years old at the time. There may have been a water issue with yours, too, I don’t know. When was this planted? What is/are your irrigation methods? I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think this one is alive. ETA: Adding the photo here for others, as it shows up blank in your post, and has to be clicked on. This site is glitchy when posting images.