Over the last couple of years the local Birch trees have been showing increasing signs of full out Leaf Miner infestations. The Birch Leaf Miner larva is a very tiny insect that lives and feeds between the layers of the leaf. They form blotch mines inside the leaf consuming part, or the entire inside of the leaf. They do bread several cycles of miners per year. As with most leaf miners they can deprive the tree of so much photosynthesis that it will send the tree into a death spiral. Unfortunately natural control methods like predators don't work well. As the larva lives between the leafs layers. The best form of treatment, is an intravenous injection of a systemic insecticide directly into the tree. It will protect your Birch tree from leaf miners and the Golden Birch Borer for 2 years. Long enough to hopefully recover enough so that it is no longer in a death spiral, and implement it own natural defences against insect infestations. Being that it is an injection directly into the tree there is no harmful side effects to people or the trees habitat. The injections can only be done by an ISA Certified Arborist. Contact us for more information.
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