UPDATE: click here for information on Emerald Ash Borer status in Colorado/Highlands Ranch. 

An infestation of insects, fungus, or other diseases can seriously affect the overall health & beauty of your trees.  The experienced plant health care technicians at Arborscape will inspect your trees and recommend the best insect and disease control options.  We offer various:

• Pesticide sprays
• Bark injections
• Fertilizer applications

The benefits of working with ArborScape:

• A licensed commercial pesticide applicator is sensitive to the people, water, and land affected by plant health care treatments. Check out our guarantee.
• As certified arborists, we are up-to-date on the safest tree health standards.
• No contracts.  Trees do require frequent treatments but we believe in proving our value every visit.

Insect & Disease Control Options

The most effective method in many cases is spraying the tree with pesticide or fungicide as contact prevention or curative agent.

However, some insect and fungus problems occur deep within the cambium layers (the bark of the tree) and injections are the best option.  Injections are also a good option if you have environmental concerns about pesticide spraying.  Injections have almost no chance of entering the groundwater supply.

In the case of a few rare diseases, an injection of dormant oils is the preferred prevention measure.

Application of fertilizer is sometimes a good solution to insects & diseases as well.  Adding more nutrients to the soil will bolster the tree’s natural defense system.

Common Tree Insects & Diseases

Here is a list of the most common insects found in Highlands Ranch area trees:

• Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) – typically attacks weaker trees due to old age, crowding, drought, fire damage, etc.
• Ips Bark Beetle – also known as “engraver beetles” targeting pine & spruce trees
• Spider Mites – common plant pests most easily identified by flecking, discoloration & scorching of leaves
• Aphids – very common insect present throughout the entire season
• Ash Borer – active in early spring
• Pine Zimmerman Moth – their larvae damage the tree by tunneling under the bark and are identified by large masses of sap at the tree wounds

And here are the three diseases we most frequently treat & prevent:

• Thousand Canker – attacks Black Walnut Trees; identified by dieback starting at the tree crown.
• Oyster Scale – also known as Oystershell Scale and combated with dormant oil injection
• Tree & Needle Scale – an insect-related disease that appears as scaly growths on the branches & needles
• Elm & Dutch Elm Disease – a fungal infection spread by park beetles
• Fire Blight – named for its appearance of leaves looking fire-scorched, this contagious bacteria affects primarily apple & pear trees

Insect & Disease Control Timing

In almost every plant health care situation, the timing of application is extremely critical to success.  For example, dormant oils are injected into the tree before it comes out of its winter hibernation state.

Most insect infestations occur at a particular time every year.  Mountain Pine Beetles are active in June, which means we try to spray early in the season with a sticking agent to keep the pesticide on the bark through the spring rains.  Ash Borer prevention starts in May, and the Pine Zimmerman Moth is best prevented with an application in September.

For the ultimate in insect & disease prevention for your tree Arborscape recommends the following plan:

• Spring Fertilization
• General Insect Spray
• Special Insect Spray (addressing specific issues – timing varies)
• Envirotree Fertilization (late spring, summer)
• Fall Fertilization

If your trees have a specific insect or disease control issue, please contact us for information on the best time of year to combat the problem.