I love dark foliage. I love trees that provide structure, but not a lot of shade. I love my Albizia julibrissin ‘Summer Chocolate’…
You may remember that we did a serious hack job on the Albizia late in the winter of 2024, I wrote about it in the second half of
this post. The reason for the cut back was two fold, first the tree was getting huge, too big for our small garden and I knew it would respond well to a serious prune. The second issue was an infestation of
Albizia psyllid, or
Acizzia jamatonica if you wanna talk Latin. Only the south side of the tree was involved, so I hoped by cutting it back maybe we’d get rid of the bugs. That reasoning proved successful last summer, but not so much this year…
This year they were back, and they were bad. Leaves were dropping every day hour, and they had tiny creatures crawling over them.
Looking up at the tallest branches it was obvious they’d been hit hard.
I pulled out the microscope attachment for my iPhone camera centered it on a leaf. It captured this creepy scene on one of those tiny leaves. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these leaves on every branch.
Even worse is a video where you can watch them move. Keep in mind the common name: jumping plant-lice.
Gross.
As if leaves full of plant lice raining down isn’t bad enough, they also produce long threads of honeydew, contained in tubes of sticky white wax. This was just one afternoon’s worth as I’ve been hosing off the plants underneath the tree every single day….
The good news is Acizzia jamatonica appears to be highly host specific and is thought to feed exclusively on species of Albizia, so it won’t be infecting my other plants, hopefully.
However, standing under the tree when a gust of wind hit sent those sticky white threads (as well as leaves, both small segments and larger pieces) snowing down, it was pretty disgusting.
All of this is to say that I’d finally had enough and with the help of my new toy (a Fiskars 2-in-1 Extendable Tree Pruner and Pole Saw) it was time to make the infestation go away.
I’d used this tool for a couple of other small jobs, but this was the first time it really got a workout and I was very happy with it. I could easily cut small branches with the pruners using the “power-stroke” handle.
I was curious what the branches that looked good (from my vantage point on the ground) would look like when I could see them up close.
The growth points were sticky and gnarled.
And the leaves were just as infested as on the lower branches, however help had arrived.
In all of it’s forms (ladybug larva).
I tried to rescue all the beetles and larva before I shoved the branches into the yard waste bin, but I obviously missed a few because they came crawling out pretty quickly.
I felt kinda bad getting rid of the problem when they were there to help clean it up, but it would have taken hundreds more of them to even begin to get the issue under control. Not that they weren’t working to increase their numbers.
Boy were they working…
Evidence of more help to come…
But sadly there was just no way I could wait. Things were just too far gone.
I discovered a few interesting abnormalities, like leaves with a twist…
And fasciation on a few branches
Since I feel a bit like I’m writing an endorsement for the Fiskers tool I should also share that once I’d done everything I could with the pruners I went ahead and attached the saw. This thing extends from 7.9 to 12 feet… it’s amazing. The saw isn’t a cutting tool for fine jobs…
But it allowed me to do this on my own, safely from the ground, no ladders! No husbands! (those cut branches are taller than they look in this photo, over 11 ft for the shortest and up from there)
Andrew said he’ll get up on the ladder at some point and tidy up the ugly ends of the branches.
As much as I will miss that dark foliage, cleaning off the staghorns and hanging them back up with nothing but clean, clear, sky above felt fabulous.
From the
U.S. Forest Service: “First seen in the US in 2006 in Georgia: Acizzia jamatonica (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Psyllidae) is reported for the first time in North America. Because the species is thought to feed exclusively on Albizia, it may prove to be an effective biocontrol agent against the invasive Albizia julibrissin in the southeastern United States. Because A. julibrissin is also an ornamental plant of some importance, the arrival of A. jamatonica may not be welcomed by many.”
I saw first hand just how invasive Albizia julibrissin can be in the East when I flew in to the Washington DC area for the
2017 Fling, they were everywhere! They aren’t nearly as pervasive out here in my part of the West, but they’re definitely loved as ornamental trees. I wonder who else has experienced this nasty pest? On
iNaturalist there are sightings in New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, and Oregon. Portland, Oregon, to be exact. Interesting.
How will I treat for this pest? I have no idea, I haven’t been able to find anything helpful online. I’d love to hear from anyone who knows! Perhaps I need to say good-bye to the tree, as much as I will miss its fabulous foliage and the fact it provides a great place to hang my staghorns.
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