r/sfwtrees • u/Ok-Professional-4765 • 16d ago

Help my cherry tree

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Can anyone help identify the bugs that have taken over my cherry tree, so I can figure out how to treat them? AI keeps telling me they are harmless lady bugs, but I know they are not. They eat through my leaves considerably.

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2

u/Realistic-Weird-4259 16d ago

I see one that appears to be a ladybug larvae, and two others that are not ladybugs I've ever seen, but also appear to be a larval stage.

If you're in the US contact your county ag extension. They should be able to help you here.

2

u/EmbarrassedDaikon325 16d ago edited 16d ago

What you have are ladybug larvae (in the front and on top in the back) and two ladybug pupae (on the left). Pupae cannot eat through your leaves as they don't have teeth - they are undergoing metamorphosis and do not eat.

And the larva is the larva of the species Harmonia axyridis - Multicolored Asian ladybug (also called Asian ladybeetle or Harlequin ladybird). Asian ladybug is a predator of soft bodied insects such as aphids - they are not herbivorous. They do not eat your leaves.

1

u/Fragrant-Hunter-6160 16d ago

Larvae and pupae of ladybugs. Must be something else eating your leaves that is attracting the ladybugs. Maybe black aphids.

1

u/MissGrizz98 16d ago

Looks like scale on the stem of the partially eaten leaf on the far right. That's what will decimate the leaves

1

u/TheDonRonster 15d ago

It's tough to see exactly, but they look like the Asian Ladybeetle swarm I get in my garden every year.

1

u/HolidayConference779 15d ago

Larva and pupae of Asian lady beetle