Leaf galls rarely cause serious harm because unaffected leaf tissue on the plant, and even on the same leaf, will continue to produce food for the plant, Chicago Botanic Garden's Tim Johnson writes.
My new shrub that was planted last year is doing well, but it has odd-looking, cone-shaped bumps on some of the leaves. Is this something to worry about?Your description suggests your shrub has galls. Insect and mite galls are common on trees and shrubs throughout the Chicago area and generally are nothing to be concerned about. Leaf galls rarely cause serious harm because unaffected leaf tissue on the plant, and even on the same leaf, will continue to produce food for the plant.
You may or may not have a recurrence of these galls next year in your garden. Most galls are caused by native insects and mites and are attacked by parasitic wasps and other natural enemies that serve to control their populations naturally. As the gall insects’ and mites’ population increases, so will the natural enemies. Thus, infestations come and go over the years.Leaf galls rarely cause serious harm because unaffected leaf tissue will continue to produce food for the plant.
Insecticide applications rarely provide any effective control of insects and mites that cause galls. The plant will wall off and compartmentalize the insect or mite as it feeds, which creates the galls you are seeing in your plants. Since the plant’s nutrient and water-conducting tissues have been “walled off” and greatly reduced from the gall, systemic insecticides that are transported inside the plant are not very effective in killing the gall-forming insects while they are feeding.
Adult gall-making insects and mites are the only life-cycle stages outside the gall, so contact insecticides do not work well either. Most gall makers are wasps that are difficult to control even when you time the application correctly. Just continue with a normal maintenance program for your shrubs. With the current dry conditions, the shrub will benefit from supplemental water since it was planted last year and is still getting established.
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