Maple tree diagram leaves often develop bantam , mushroom - shaped bumps . These growths are most coarse on silver maples , but red and sugar maples experience them as well . The bump emerge pale green from the leaves ' surfaces before change to red . While unsightly , specially on trees grown chiefly for their foliation , these defect are a maple Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ’s fashion of defend itself against a diminutive , leafage - devouring insect .
Step 1
The insect creditworthy forred prominence on maple leavesare unseeable , maple bladder gall mites ( Vasates quadripedes ) . Their 1/125 - inch prospicient , carrot - like bodies have two span of pegleg , and their coloring range from white or pink to orange .
Life Cycle
Adult mites drop their winters beneath a maple tree ’s light barque or near its healed - over wounds and pruning scars . When the tree ’s leaf bud emerge in spring , the speck migrate to and feed on them . The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree reply by producing blisters around the hurt leaf tissue . The blisters harden into light unripened spherical galls as the leave-taking boom . The galls may be 1/10 - inch high and 1/8 - column inch around . The mites enter the hollow spaces within the galls from opening on the lower leaf surfaces and go on feeding . They also procreate , without mating , while inside the galls . The new hatched mites prey and mature there before lead the gall by mid - summer for their wintertime hiding places .
Step 2
Damage
spartan infestations of maple bladder gall mites can make enough cheekiness to cover the upper surface of the leaves on which they feed . The saddle sore ' weight may distort the leaves ' shapes and cause them to miss untimely . The most serious scathe is likely after a mild wintertime during which enceinte population of the jot survive . The maple trees , however , usually compensate by produce new farewell to put back bile - damaged ones .
Control
The damage from maple vesica gall mites rarely goes beyond cosmetic . The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree suffer no live on damage from their plague . If your maple ’s unsightly leaf is a concern , however , you have options . impregnate a dormant tree with an early natural spring spray of jot - suffocating dormant oil color or melted lime sulfur . The temperature must be more than 40 grade Fahrenheit , with no freezing expected for at least a day . Spray with a miticide phrase for eriphyid mites may work if timed just as the leaf buds are emerging . These chemicals are ineffective on trees with existing cheekiness .
Mite-Resistant Maples
The most effectual way to eliminate violent prominence on your maple leaves is to turn mite - insubordinate change . The resistant Norway maple ( Acer platanoides ) ' Crimson King ' cultivar has striking , maroon summertime foliage . Norway maple ' Deborah ’s ' get out progress from leap ’s bright red to summer ’s blue dark-green and autumn ’s yellow - orange .
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