Tree Pests & Diseases

Trees throughout the Midwest are subject to countless insect pests and diseases. Learn how to recognize signs of infestation or infection, ways to prevent attacks on your trees, and how to minimize damage when destructive insects and deadly diseases reach your yard.

Mature oak tree with a thinning canopy, bare branches, and sections of brown foliage surrounded by green trees.
Is Oak Wilt Contagious to Other Trees Nearby?
An oak in Bent Oaks, Clay Woods, Wilshire Estates, or Dougherty Historic can go from a full green ...
A large evergreen tree in a residential front yard shows extensive brown, dead needles through its lower and interior branches.
Why Is My Evergreen Losing Needles in Fall?
From Prairie Village to Lenexa, browning needles are showing up on pines, spruce, and arborvitae across Johnson County. ...
A gravel road through Cedar Rapids lined with trees in full orange and yellow fall color.
Why Is My Tree Turning Pale Yellow?
Across Cedar Rapids, many of the trees that’ve been planted since the 2020 derecho went into soil that ...
Finger pointing to black, crusty Hypoxylon canker on peeling tree bark.
Black Bark on Your Dallas Tree? It Could Be Hypoxylon Canker
Black, crusty bark on a tree is hard to ignore, especially when it seems to appear out of ...
A dense cluster of hairy caterpillars with white and orange stripes feeds on a silk mat spun against tree bark.
What Are These Webs, Holes, and Spots on My Trees in Johnson County?
You know your trees well enough to notice when something looks different. Maybe you don’t remember those webs ...
White powdery mildew coating the upper surface of oak leaves on a Parkville tree in August.
What’s Wrong With My Tree? Common Late-Summer Tree Problems in Parkville
A tree can look healthy through early summer and start showing some strange symptoms by late summer: webs ...
Ripe red-orange crabapple fruit and green leaves on a West Des Moines crabapple tree.
Why Is My West Des Moines Crabapple Losing Leaves in Summer?
A crabapple that starts summer covered in leaves can look surprisingly bare by the end of it. Across ...
Dead oak with a bare, brittle canopy standing above green trees in late summer.
Why Is My Cedar Rapids Tree Wilting and Turning Brown This Summer?
A tree that looked healthy at the beginning of summer can look very different by the end of ...
Fall webworm nest wrapped around branch tips of a mature tree in late summer.
What Are Those White Webs on Your Tree Branches?
One day your tree looks perfectly healthy. The next, white webs seem to have appeared out of nowhere. ...
Professional identification helps distinguish eastern tent caterpillars from fall webworms so the right management approach can be recommended.
How to Identify Bagworms, Webworms, and Spider Nests on Your Norman Trees
Hanging bags, white webs, and spider silk all start appearing on Norman trees during the summer, but they ...